I’m excited to announce an upcoming food styling and photography workshop I’ll be hosting in Paris this January 16-17 with stylist Garbriel Cabrera of @ArtfulDesperado. There are only a few spots left, and I want to encourage you to consider joining us! I fell head over heels for this city when I first visited years ago and spent the following years plotting my eventual move here. I can’t wait to share Paris with you: the seductive smells that emanate from the butchers, fromageries and bakeries, the well-attended markets with their beautiful, meticulously displayed produce (and no touching!) and how there are enough cheeses to try a different one each day of the year. Now I’m super excited to show you around this city that I call home. You’ll experience Paris the way I do:  through your camera and your stomach!

So what will you learn? Good question! We’ll be showing you how to tell stories with food and photography, from planning to execution. To be clear: this is not a demonstration only class; it’s an intensive, immersive hands-on class. That means you’ll get lots of time to practice, gain confidence, and learn some great tips, tricks and foolproof techniques… all while creating your own beautiful pictures.  

Day 1

We’ll spend the first day in a beautiful Parisian apartment in the heart of the Marais district.  

The focus will be on building out a plan in preparation for a photography session. We’ll show you how to approach and implement dynamic, engaging styling, explore camera settings and share some of our favourite equipment (technical and improvised) to control natural lighting.

We’ll also show you how to convey a mood or feeling with the use of props, set design, lighting, and editing.

By the end of the day you’ll have a full plan which you can adapt to different situations, from a photo shoot at home to a professional photo session for a client.

Day 2

We’ll hit the streets to explore some of my favourite spots in the city for beautiful food items and ingredients, all while learning useful tips on how to capture ‘on location’ photos—just the thing for creating engaging travel and lifestyle content.

Once we’ve tracked down some tasty treats and appealing ingredients, we’ll return to the studio to get to work on our previously planned photoshoot. Styling, set prep, and photography will come next, followed by a group critique session, which will provide valuable feedback to improve your work.

After two jam packed days, you’ll have a memory card full of beautiful photos and a head full of techniques to create your own food and lifestyle shoots—anytime.

Who can benefit from this workshop?

Photographers, bloggers, home cooks…  Anyone who wants to learn how the art of compelling food photography.

Unfortunately, accommodation is not included but we’ll be sending all those registered a list of suggested accommodation—not to mention my list of favourite places to eat and drink in the city! Hope to see you all there!

You can register at http://cocopaiworkshop.bigcartel.com

Earlier this month, I was fortunate enough to attend the Lens & Larder workshop taught by Andrea Gentl and Martin Hyers of Gentl and Hyers photography and food stylist  extraordinaire Susan Spungen. I have long admired the works Gentl & Hyers. They are truly masters of light, composition, and storytelling. To learn from this team was an absolute dream come true.

The workshop was hosted by Imen McDonnell of Modern Farmette and Cliodhna Prendergast of Breaking Eggs at the gorgeous Ballynahinch Castle in Connemara, Ireland. I can’t stay enough wonderful things about Imen and Cliodhna. They went above and beyond to ensure we all had the best experience possible. 

Over the course of 2 days, we walked and foraged in the nearby forest, shot portraits of a beekeeper and a butcher, prepared a picnic on the beach, and photographed a master feast that looked good enough to be a Bon Appetit spread. Did I mention we stayed in a castle? :) 

Below are some images from the workshop.

There are lots of perks to living in Paris: amazing pastries, stunning architecture  and good, cheap wine, to name a few. And then there are those unexpected opportunities that sometimes come along.., like being invited to the Shangri-La International Festival of Gastronomy.

From October 27th to 31st, eight Michelin-starred chefs from around the globe were called on to work their magic in five international cities across the globe. Chefs like Italy’s Massimo Bottura, Enrico Bartolini and Mauro Colagreco descended on Shangri-La Hotel restaurants around the world for a week of culinary magic.                                                                                   

At the Shangri-La Hotel Paris, Executive Chef Christophe Moret and Chef Samuel Lee Sum prepared exclusive menus for the event at their respective restaurants, L’Abeille and Shang Palace (the only Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant in France). Chef Sum served up dishes like deep fried oysters with cucumber and wasabi, sautéed blue lobster with ginger and spring onion and vanilla ice cream with osmanthus fermented rice and figs.

At L’Abeille (which means “the bee”), Chef Moret (who used to be head head chef at Restaurant Alain Ducasse) presented playful, inventive plates like lacquered John Dory “goujonnettes” with grilled buckwheat and crystallized lemons with matcha-tea flavoured tapioca. Shangri-La Hotels generously invited me to eat at L’Abeille during the Festival and it blew me away. My favourites were the starter, a sea urchin and gold caviar dish paired with sake and a duck breast served with peppers, juniper, Romertopf veggies and smoked gin sauce. At the end of the meal, they sent me home with a jar of Corsican honey which I can’t wait to dig into.

The Shangri-La International Festival of Gastronomy is only in its first year and I’m already looking forward to seeing what they come up with for next year’s event. Thanks for having me Shangri-la!