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Eating Turkish Food During Ramadan

It's Ramadan, the month when Muslims fast. It's also a time for sharing good food at iftar dinners, which take place after sunset when the day's fasting has ended.

I was lucky to be invited to two iftar dinners by my Turkish cooking teachers. This gave me a chance to learn about the traditions as well as to eat delicious homemade Turkish dishes. 

Both dinners were arranged by Pacifica Institute, one in Los Angeles, the other in Huntington Beach. They were called Ramadan friendship dinners, because the idea was to bring people together, and they were free. 

The first took place at St. Sophia Cathedral's Huffington Center. At the top you can see the table as it appeared before we started eating, with small plates and desserts ringed around the center along with water--Muslims do not drink while fasting.

I was thrilled that dinner started with tomato soup, the same tomato soup that I learned in my classes with Ayse Demirkan in Reseda. I make it all the time, sprinkled with cheese and black pepper as she recommended.  

There were slim stuffed grape leaves (above) with a touch of hot chile.

And cheese-filled cigar borek, so named because the pastry is rolled as slender as a cigar.

Also a creamy carrot salad, a mixed vegetable salad and green beans cooked with tomatoes (above), another favorite from my Reseda classes.

I was really impressed by eggplant with red pepper sauce (above), and I've asked Ayse to include that in the next round of classes.

I also asked her to show me how to make the main dish--little cakes of ground beef called kofte stuffed with potato puree and cheese (above). I guess you could call this Turkish style shepherd's pie.

The dessert was pudding layered with cookies and topped with strawberries, a variation of the famous banana pudding made by the Magnolia Bakery in New York City. 

It took 10 women to prepare the food, and they came on stage for an enthusiastic round of applause when the dinner was over. 

The next night's dinner was outdoors at Old World Village in Huntington Beach, a quaint area that rambles like an old-time European village.

Eren Aksoy, who teaches Turkish cooking for Pacifica in Orange County, sat next to me, so I was able get details of how the dishes were made. The desserts were on the table at the start of dinner (above) along with dates, which are traditional for breaking the Ramadan fast.

There were also bowls of savory beans (barbunya pilaki) that had been cooked with potato, carrot, onion, garlic, tomato paste and olive oil (above).

Dinner started with thick, creamy lentil soup (above).

Volunteers assembled plates of ground beef kebabs, chicken, rice pilaf and salad.

Here is a close-up of the plates. 

The kebabs, called cevapch, are typical of Bosnia, said the man who grilled them (above).

The pale square in the dessert bowl (above) is irmik muhallebi, a semolina pudding topped with walnuts and cinnamon. The little round cakes are kemalpasa, named for Kemal Ataturk, the first president of Turkey, who liked this dessert. Eren Aksoy made these, boiling the cakes in sugar syrup.

At both dinners, diners came and went to areas set aside for prayer. I had a leisurely breakfast the next day, but my Muslim friends said they would be up by 3 a.m. to have breakfast well before dawn--that meal is called suhoor--and then begin another day of fasting.    

Here's a Diet that Lets You Eat Well

I don't like thinking about food as medicine. Therefore, cookbooks based on what's going to transform the way you feel--and radically change what you eat--don't get very far with me.

However, "The Ultimate Mediteranean Diet Cookbook" by Amy Riolo (Fair Winds Press, $22.99)  isn't about eliminating everything you really like. It's about eating delicious food that happens to be good for you.

"You can have everything in the Mediterranean diet," Riolo (above) said during a book presentation and signing at Melissa's Produce. You just don't eat the "bad" things as often.

On the other hand, "diet is the leading killer of adults in the United States," she said. This is scary, which means dump the bad stuff and eat what Riolo suggests, which is pretty tasty.

My favorite of the dishes she presented at Melissa's was a side dish of green beans, potatoes and cherry tomatoes with pesto (above). It's "a typical Italian salad," said Riolo, whose roots are in Calabria.

Then there was a quinoa, arugula and fig salad--a "French spin on tabbouleh," she said. Spaghetti squash subbed for pasta in a hearty main dish with zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, basil and a sprinkling of cheese on top.

Because seafood is one of the good things we should eat, she suggested salmon marinated with orange juice and olive oil, baked with onion and fennel and topped with dollops of Greek yogurt mixed with fennel fronds and orange zest (above).  

For dessert, a raspberry citrus clafoutis (above) came from the sweets section. The desserts are at the end of the book, not because they usually do come last, but because Riolo has organized her book in accordance with the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid.

The foods to eat the least of, meats and sweets, conclude the book. The most desirable foods come first. These are fruits, vegetables, grains, olive oil, beans, nuts, legumes, seeds, herbs and spices. 

Riolo's recipes represent the entire Mediterranean area, not just Italy, France and Spain. A few examples are Egyptian cream of lentil soup, Turkish chickpea salad, Greek style roasted fish and vegetables, Lebanese Fattoush salad, Turkish eggplant and herbed rice pilaf and a North African fruit cocktail.

The cocktail (above) combines pureed strawberries and orange juice, each kept separate for a showy appearance. It's served with a topping of pomegranate syrup and pomegranate arils. To make the syrup, Melissa's chef Tom Fraker simmered bottled pomegranate juice until reduced and thickened it with cornstarch blended with water. 

The book presents nutritional findings and advice, but the recipes are what interested me. Riolo, who is working on an Italian cookbook for diabetics, signed my book "Enjoy with Pleasure and Health." That's a healthy way to look at a diet rather than regarding it as something you'd rather avoid.  

GREEN BEANS, POTATOES AND CHERRY TOMATOES WITH PESTO
From "The Ultimate Mediterranean DietCookbook" by Amy Riolo

1 1/2 pounds baby yellow potatoes or Yukon gold, washed and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 pound green beans, trimmed and cut in half on the diagonal
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 clove garlic
3 cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, unfiltered if possible
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 cup cherry tomatoes
Unrefined sea salt or salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Place the potatoes in a large steamer basket fitted over a pot of boiling water. Cover and steam for 5 minutes. Add the green beans to the potatoes in the steamer and continue to steam, covered, for another 4 minutes. Drain and immediately plunge into an ice bath to cool.

Make the pesto by combining the pine nuts, garlic, basil and olive oil in a food processor. Process until a smooth paste forms. Using a spatula, scoop pesto out of food processor and into a bowl. Stir in cheese.

Transfer the vegetables to a large serving bowl and add cherry tomatoes. Add the pesto and stir to coat evenly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Makes 4 servings. 

Summer Fruit, with Some Surprises

There's nothing conventional about this strawberry shortcake. 

First, the base isn't a biscuit or cake. It's half of a Mexican concha, the sweet bread decorated to look like a shell. 

The berries aren't your usual supermarket berries either. They're Harry's Berries, the super sweet strawberries from Oxnard that I see at the Hollywood Farmers' Market or that upscale markets get from Melissa's Produce. 

Harry's Berries are so sweet (and expensive) that it seemed ridiculous to sprinkle them with sugar, but I did this to draw out the juices so they could moisten the lightly toasted concha.

The berries came from a summer fruit presentation at Melissa's headquarters in Vernon. I drove from there to La Mascota on Whittier Boulevard to get the conchas. 

Feast your eyes on the berries again. I can't believe how sweet they are compared to what I usually get in the market. 

The presentation gave me the only opportunity I have ever had to taste a peach that is even rarer than the strawberries. It was an organic Masumoto Flavor Crest peach. These would cost $3 to $4 each, according to Robert Schueller of Melissa's.  Look for them in markets such as Gelson's and Bristol Farms. 

Such a peach demands worshipful eating, but Melissa's chef Tom Fraker gilded the lily just as I did with the strawberries. Above are his brûléed Masumoto peach wedges. 

Not so rare but equally surprising was tasting a fresh sugar plum (above). I know these as Italian prune plums, but it seems prunes have a negative connotation, and this makes sugar plum a better marketing title.

I buy prune plums in late August and September, because they are superb in pies and fruit crisps. I never tasted them raw because I thought the yellow flesh would be sour and inedible.  I won't make that mistake again, because fresh raw prune (sugar) plums are as luscious as any plum. 

I loved traveling in Thailand, where I could taste exotic fresh fruits such as rambutans (above), mangosteens and durian. It was a shock to come across a vendor selling rambutans in a small town in the south of Mexico and to learn that Melissa's gets them from Guatemala. At least that saves me the long flight across the Pacific. I can go on exotic fruit safaris right at home.  

And what were pumpkins doing at Melissa's in the summer? Oh, not pumpkins. They're called squash at this time of year. These are FairyTale squash, an apt name because they'll turn into  FairyTale pumpkins when it gets closer to Halloween.

This is smart marketing. In the summer no one thinks about pumpkins. In the fall everyone thinks about pumpkin pie and Jack O'Lanterns. Fittingly for this Cinderella-like transition, they're also known as Cinderella pumpkins.

Tasting French Wine with Two Sisters

I'm so used to big, fruity California wines that it was almost a shock to taste lean, elegant French wines.  

But I had good guides. I was sitting next to Catherine and Isabelle Orliac of Chateau Labastide Orliac at a tasting dinner at L'Ermitage.  

I had met the sisters (Catherine is at the left in the photo) at an outdoor champagne reception in the hotel.  They were so stylish, lively and fresh even though they had been traveling hard, from a tasting in New York to Los Angeles, then back to New York the next morning.

We drank glass after glass of Champagne Ernest Remy Millésime 2005 (above). Made 100% from Pinot Noir grapes from Grand Cru vineyards in Mailly-Champagne, this beautiful bubbly spent 72 months--that's six years!--in the bottle, although Champagne regulations require only 36 months.

Then we went inside for dinner, starting with salmon tartare and a taste of two Cru Classé Côtes de Provence rosés (above). They were Chateau Saint-Maur L'Excellence 2014 and Chateau Saint-Maur Clos de Capelune 2014.

The first was pink, full and fruity, a delightful wine.  "Beautiful color," Catherine said, and she found it superior to the second wine although she said, tactfully, that both were good.

The second was made with the same grapes--Grenache, Cinsault, Mourvedre and Rolle, but grown at a higher elevation. This wine was pale, dry and restrained. I thought it  went well with the delicately seasoned tartare. Even in the dark, you can see the the difference in color (above). 

Then we moved on to a Chardonnay, Louis Baisinbert Corton Charlemagne 2011, a Grand Cru wine from a limited edition of 300 bottles (above). I detected  pronounced oak in the finish of this wine, but Catherine said she thought it was beautifully balanced with the oak. "Fabulous," she said. California wine lovers would go for this one, it was so rich and full flavored.

The dish served with it was butternut squash cannelloni with sage brown butter and Parmigiano Reggiano.

Now on to roasted exotic mushrooms, celery root soubise, smoked tomato confit and mushroom jus with the Louis Baisinbert Corton Les Perrières 2012, a Grand Cru Pinot Noir (above). "Beautiful color and good nose," Catherine said.

Next came what I was waiting for, two wines from the sisters' property, Chateau Labastide Orliac, which, they said, is south of Bordeaux and on the right bank of the Gironde river. These two Cru Exceptionnel wines (above) were matched with fennel-crusted lamb rack with caponata, grilled Roquefort polenta and sauce bordelaise.

The sisters are traditional winemakers and do the least possible to "touch" the wine, they said. Instead of stainless steel, they ferment in cement vats, because wine evolves in cement but not in stainless steel, Catherine said. They let nature express itself in the vineyards and don't use pesticides. 

The sisters themselves are part of French history. They're the seventh generation of the Orliac family to inhabit the chateau and make wine there since 1750. In 1780, Louis XVI signed a letter inviting Jean Orliac to provide wine to the French court. 

Both of the wines we tasted were labeled Royal Heritage for this reason. The first, Le Prince 2009 (on the left in the photo), came from the youngest part of the vineyard. It's a blend of 40% each Merlot and Cabernet Franc and 20% Tannat. Tannat is good for the health, Isabelle said, although I didn't find out why.

The dinner, arranged by Private Cask Imports, ended with the impressively labeled Royal Heritage 1780, from the year 2008 (above). It's the more elite of the two, from the finest and oldest vineyard stock.

The five grapes in the blend are Merlot, Tannat, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Abouriou, a local grape that provides deep color, structure and lowers the alcohol level, Catherine said. Each grape is processed separately, then blended after six months in barrels. 

Catherine said she likes to cook and prepares meals for the winery workers. She would serve Royal Heritage 1780 with good cheese, filet mignon, duck confit, magret de canard (duck breast), lentils with Toulouse sausage--"anything rich."  And that's appropriate, because this was the priciest wine of the evening, $190. 

The Thrill of Learning to Grill

I am worse than a dunce at barbecuing. When a cookbook calls for grilling over coals, I turn the page. A sack of mesquite has been in my garage for so long it may have developed termites. But I don't know, because I can't find it. 

Therefore, I was thrilled by an invitation to get hands-on barbecuing experience, actually hand-held experience, because someone would guide me through each step.

On a Saturday afternoon, the Weber BBQ Boot Camp took place in a parking lot in Playa Vista (at top). Food bloggers like me were invited--so we would write about Weber and its products, of course, but that was a small obligation for a chance to overcome my ignorance. I confessed to the Weber team that I knew nothing. This didn't matter.

After appetizers (cheese and fruit) in the classroom of our grill academy, we were sent outside, wearing long black aprons embroidered with our names. Here we were assigned to grill stations with all sorts of equipment--cutting boards, paper towels, a chef's knife, seasonings and more. Our task: to grill the perfect burger.

I was posted at the cutest fuchsia grill (above). In my garage, there's a small, beat-up, very old black barbecue that, like the mesquite, I can't find.

It's amazing to see that grills are now making a fashion statement. Look at the colors of the Weber Q 1200 grill, the model we were going to use.   

To begin the class, we gathered around our instructor, Jeff Carter, who said he would help us "become the backyard rockstar griller."  The first step, he said, would be to preheat the grill. That might seem obvious, but not to me.

Then we should clean the grill, if it had been used before. "You don't want today's hamburger to taste like last night's salmon," he said. We didn't have to do this, because Weber people cleaned our grills as needed. 

Next, Jeff taught us about meat. The perfect ground beef for burgers is 80% lean and 20% fat. "This gives a juicy burger, but there is not so much fat that it will fall apart," he said.

Then he showed how to put our meat in a plastic baggy, wearing rubber gloves so we wouldn't touch it, add seasonings and knead them in (above). I chose salt, pepper and a seasoning blend that I had never seen before. 

Next, we were to put the meat into a burger press. This is better than shaping by hand because it seals the edges so they won't crumble on the grill, Jeff said. 

And then a crucial step--making a thumb print in the middle of the patty. Doing this keeps the meat from rising to a peak in the center as it grills. If this happened, it would be hard to put the patty in a bun, I figured.

We were to grill our patties with the lid down for 4 minutes, then flip them for another 4 minutes.  If I had opened the grill to check doneness, I might have been expelled. "Lookin' ain't cookin'," Jeff emphasized, explaining that lifting the lid lets out heat and flavor. 

At the end of the cooking time, we were to check doneness by inserting a digital thermometer into the side of the patty (above). This was hard because my patty was so thin, but I only had to keep it there until it read 155 degrees, when the meat would be safe to eat. 

Some wanted melted cheese on their patties. I grilled sliced mushrooms. When the meat was done, we grilled buns. Then we assembled our burgers with sliced red onion, tomatoes, avocado, pickles and other fixings and ate them in our classroom along with pasta and kale salads.   

Although I was nervous, I was helped at each step by an expert grill-mate, Valerie Mitchell of the blog Mama Likes to Cook. 

Here is my burger. It looks like something a beginner would make, messy around the edges.

And here is an expert, beautifully styled burger. It's Valerie's portobello burger--she's a vegetarian. 

After eating, we were sent back to our grills to make dessert. "Everything you can do in the kitchen, you can do on the grill--breakfast, lunch, dinner," Jeff said.

Weber has formed a partnership with popchips. These potato chips are crisp as can be but aren't baked or fried and don't contain anything bad, meaning preservatives, artificial flavors, synthetic colors, cholesterol and trans fats. Being potatoes, they're gluten free. Another plus, they're made in Los Angeles, where I live. 

The base of our dessert would be a sweet potato cinnamon twist popchip, a new flavor coming out in the fall.  On top, we placed grilled green apple slices caramelized with brown sugar (above) and then squirted on whipped cream and trickles of caramel syrup. 

Kids would love this. It's easy to assemble, if you're grilling at a picnic. And it's really good, if you have a sweet tooth like I do.

Then we were done and class was dismissed, but not without rewards for our hard work.  We left with a barbecue mitt, assorted popchips, a red popchips hat, a water bottle, a jar of Chicago steak seasoning, Weber's "Big Book of Burgers" (above) and a coupon for ordering a free grill online, like the ones we were using.

Now I will be forced to grill, not so much for flavor, although that will be nice, but because I won't be able to resist using my new fuchsia grill--it's so pretty.   

Getting the Facts About Yogurt

There are risks in reading Cheryl Sternman Rule's book "Yogurt Culture" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $22).

Here is what may happen:

1. You'll stop eating non-fat yogurt. "Reduced-fat dairy...isn't solving the problems many consumers think it solves. It may, in fact, lead to overeating and unhealthy food swaps," she writes in the book. 

2. You'll give up yogurt loaded with heavily sweetened fruit and candy-like add-ons. The yogurt's fine. It's the extras that aren't good for you. 

3. You'll wind up making your own yogurt. This is easy, and Rule tells how to do it. 

4. And you'll cook a lot because her recipes are so tempting.

A perfect example is the easiest appetizer imaginable, just yogurt, lemon vinaigrette and pine nuts (above). I ate lots of this when Rule gave a yogurt presentation at Melissa's Produce.

Mini sweet peppers stuffed with yogurt and feta (above)  were just as good, and colorful for an appetizer display. 

Perfect for brunch is a shiitake frittata made with kale, shallots and Greek yogurt (above). Notice the pools of labneh (thickened, salted yogurt) indented in the surface.

For a first course, the Melissa's team made Rule's cauliflower-bacon soup with saffron yogurt. And for dessert, they baked a fruit-studded sheet cake designed to feed company (above). The drink with lunch was pineapple lassi.

Rule first made yogurt when serving in the Peace Corps in Eritrea. For the book, she researched the latest in science and nutrition and the growth of the yogurt craze in the United States

Zeroing in on countries where yogurt is a staple, she gathered recipes from Turkey, Israel, Greece, Eritrea, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. "I learned from people who cook with yogurt every day," she said. 

The book covers western cuisines as well, with recipes such as cilantro shrimp with tomatillo-tomato salsa, dry-rubbed skirt steak with caramelized onion yogurt and salted caramel panna cottas. 

Rule (above) recommends trying out high quality yogurts made from sheep and goat's milk, if you can find them. But she tested the recipes for the book with common cow's milk yogurt, except for a goat cheese cheesecake.  

If you miss commercial fruit yogurts and sugary add-ons, you can make your own, from recipes that sound far more tempting than what you get in the store, like fresh oranges with cinnamon toast croutons, triple almond-raisin stir-in and roasted blueberry compote. This way, you can control the sugar, Rule said.

Other chapters in the book cover soups, main dishes, baked goods, frozen yogurt and smoothies. There's also a page on whey, the liquid drained off when straining yogurt. Whey is "the next big thing," Rule said, noting that whey drinks are already coming on the market. This acidic liquid can be used in baked goods and in marinades to tenderize meats as well as in smoothies and lassies. 

"I am geeked out about yogurt," she said, and so she has started a website, Team Yogurt, where you can get recipes, product information and yogurt news. Meanwhile, whet your appetite with this appetizer which, Rule said, is "one of my favorites, because it's so simple."

GREEK YOGURT WITH LEMON VINAIGRETTE
From "Yogurt Culture" by Cheryl Sternman Rule

2 cups plain Greek yogurt, preferably whole milk
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon pine nuts, lightly toasted in a dry skillet
1/4 teaspoon za'atar (available in Middle Eastern markets), or a few leaves fresh parsley, chopped
Warm whole-wheat pita triangles

In a large bowl, beat the yogurt until light and smooth. Scrape it into a shallow, wide serving bowl and smooth with the back of a spoon to create a wide indentation.

In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk the oil and lemon juice until emulsified; season well with salt and pepper.

Pour the vinaigrette over the yogurt so it floods the indentation. Sprinkle with the pine nuts and za'atar or parsley. Taste, adding a bit more salt, if desired. Serve with warm pita.

Makes 2 1/4 cups dip.  

Pairing Wine with Thai Food at Ayara

What to drink with Thai food? That's obvious--Thai tea, Thai coffee or a Singha beer. 

Wine? Of course not. Heady, spicy Thai flavors would kill the delicate nuances. Give it a try, though, and you'll find that some Thai/wine pairings actually do work, and work well.

One place to check this out is Ayara Thai Cuisine in Westchester, which is introducing a serious wine list this month.

"We wanted to to find a way to bring wine to Thai food in a friendly, non-pretentious way," said Vanda Asapahu (right) of the family that owns the restaurant. Previously, Ayara offered only the usual unchallenging mass market wines expected in such places. 

To check out its new concept, the restaurant held a tasting (at top), pairing seven wines with Thai foods in a range of styles--spicy, sweet, sour, salty, creamy, delicate, soft, crisp.

The sommelier, Courtney Walsh, looked beyond Riesling, which is a common choice with spicy cuisines, for something "a little different."

The supplier was Revel Wine, which specializes in handmade small production wines, meaning as few as 50 cases. "Think of craft beer. This is craft wine," said Bennett Traub, from Revel.

Here are the dishes they had to match.  The wines follow. 

First up were fried appetizers including veggie rolls and toasts topped with shrimp and pork (above).

Fresh spring rolls with shrimp and peanut sauce (above) were wine-friendly.

Pad Thai (above) was a must to pair well with wine because it's one of Ayara's top sellers--more than 2,000 orders a month.

Papaya salad (above) challenged with spicy flavors.

So did When Tigers Cry, grilled marinated tri-tip with spicy tamarind sauce (above).

Chu-chee salmon in a luscious, creamy coconut sauce (above) needed a wine that could cut through the rich creaminess.

How did the wines perform? 

The 2014 Poe Sonoma rosé (above), made from old vine Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes, and the 2013 Precedent Chenin Blanc "Sec" from the Clements Hills in Lodi were overpowered by the vibrant flavors. They would have been okay with milder dishes. 

If any wine excelled, it was Turbullent, a sparkling French Gamay rosé from vigneron Stephane Sérol, that pitted bubbles and bright acidity against strong flavors. 

An aromatic white wine that did well was the 2013 Brooks Amycas, a blend of Pinot Blanc, Muscat, Riesling and Pinot Gris from Oregon with muscat notes that stood out.  

The surprise was that red wines went really well with the food, even broccoli (above).  

The obvious matches for them were the Tigers Cry steak and crisp pork belly with Chinese broccoli, but they held up with almost everything. 

The 2013 Broc Cellars Counoise, a grape used more for blending than as a varietal, was the first red poured. This Mendocino wine is fruit forward and medium in body. "Tannins you don't want with Thai food," Walsh commented.

Only 52 cases were made of the 2013 Harrington Wines Lover's Lane Carignane from Mendocino, Traub said. Deeply flavored, earthy and meaty, it was made with grapes from an organically-farmed vineyard.

Poco a Poco, a 2014 Mendocino Grenache from Porter-Bass in Guerneville, easily cut through rich fats. This wine is not on Ayara's new list, which will change every few months. It was chosen to pair with a weekend special, hung lay curry from northern Thailand. 

At the end, tasters filled out forms evaluating the wines they had tasted, then relaxed with the final dish, one they didn't have to pair with wine. It was the popular Thai dessert mangoes and sticky rice with coconut sauce (above). 

Ayara Thai Cuisine, 6245 W. 87th St., Westchester, CA 90045. (310) 410-8848.

Photo Help for Bloggers from a Pro

Need Instagram inspiration?

Then check the photos at Chef's Insight.Com. They're from Bob Hodson, a  commercial photographer who gave a photo class for food bloggers at Melissa's Produce. At the top, he's photographing Melissa's chef Tom Fraker at work.

Fraker, at left, is preparing a stone fruit salad with citrus vinaigrette and grilled shrimp. The photo above isn't Hodson's, obviously. I't my fast, unstyled shot of the salad that I was given.

Instead of the one or two shots that I took, Hodson would take a thousand in order to get a few that are just right. His site is filled with the results, which you can use as models of what makes a good photo.

It's a great resource even for food lovers without a camera, because it's like a huge food magazine, loaded with chef interviews and recipes--Hodson doesn't just shoot. He collects scads of information.

From the site, you can learn to make such dishes as Ben Ford's pork belly lettuce wraps, Jimmy Shaw's swordfish tacos al pastor, Mary Sue Milliken's aji amarillo fried chicken and Josie Le Balch's corn succotash with pork chops and herb oil. 

Above, Hodson works on a shot at Melissa's. Although this is a careful set-up with special lighting, Hodson insists that he and his crew aren't stylists. "We just make food look good," he said.

They do use stylist tricks such as the equipment in the photo above--wet wipes for cleaning up dishes (better than a tissue or your dinner napkin), makeup sponges to elevate food, Alka Seltzer to rev up foam in a drink, olive oil spray to add shimmer.

At the class, we heard a lot of techno talk about fill cards,  ISO, aperture, raw versus jpgs, all this to achieve the main point of food photography: You want to "elicit drooling," Hodson said.