The association has a website http://www.jerseyshorechefs.com/Winterfest.html and they post photos of the dishes for the upcoming Winterfest dinner. (They know that good photos will inspire people to come to Winterfest.) I volunteer to do the photography for them.

This year, Chef Phillip, one of the seven chefs preparing dishes for the dinner, made an exquisite mushroom dish. It looked beautiful. It inspired me to go out and buy mushrooms to photograph the following day. I went to the asian market where I found a plethora of mushroom varieties. (How many in a plethora?)

So, while my wife was playing Mah-Jongg, I was shooting up a storm. I had a great time and I think the photos show it.

I had already known all of the chefs there except for one, Chef George Kyrtatas. He came over to our table and chit chatted (does anyone use that expression anymore?) We spoke for a while and I quickly came to realize that he was a really friendly, enthusiastic and very capable chef.

I posted the photos of the Wine and Dine on Facebook and was surprised to get a call from Chef George. He asked if I would come to his home to shoot his food. Duh! Of course I will.

I packed up my studio and headed to southern New Jersey for the shoot. I walked in and the entire kitchen (and believe me he has a large kitchen) was covered with cooked food, raw vegetables, fruits, micro-greens, pastries and all manner of edibles.

We photographed for five hours. Five hours of beautiful photos. Thank you George for a great experience. I look forward to working with you again and dining in your restaurant. And a special thank you to my friend Lew who assisted and carried lots of equipment in the freezing cold. Thanks Lew.

Clare from Devil Brownies is a member of the Freehold NJ Network for Success group, as am I. I met Clare at a monthly meeting, introduced myself and showed her my portfolio. She was very impressed but apologized because she had just finished taking photos for QVC.com.  About two month later, I got a call from Clare that her photos were rejected by QVC.com and we got together to shoot her brownies based on the strict QVC restrictions. Not a problem. We did the photos for QVC and threw in a few more just for fun. Of course, they were approved by QVC and their nut brownies are now available there.

You can purchase Devil Brownies directly from Devil Brownies or from QVC and I wouldn’t complain if someone sent me a box.

So, here are the rest of the crazy holidays for December. I could really use a client in each of these. I can’t wait for December 30th…National Bicarbonate of Soda day.

December 1 National Pie Day
December 2 National Fritters Day
December 4 National Cookie Day
December 5 National Sacher Torte Day
December 6 National Gazpacho Day
December 7 National Cotton Candy Day
December 8 National Brownie Day
December 9 National Pastry Day
December 11 National Noodle-Ring Day
December 12 National Ambrosia Day
December 13 National Cocoa Day
December 14 National Bouillabaisse Day
December 15 National Lemon Cupcake Day
December 16 National Chocolate Covered Anything Day
December 18 National Roast Suckling Pig Day
December 21 National French Fried Shrimp Day
December 23 National Pfeffernuesse Day
December 24 National Egg Nog Day
December 25 National Pumpkin Pie Day
December 26 National Candy Cane Day
December 27 National Fruitcake Day
December 30 National Bicarbonate of Soda Day

Here is a link to the rest of the American holidays. Have fun!

Huh? Cookie pie? What’s that? It’s a great dessert from from www.barbarascookie pies.com. A 6 1/2 inch diameter cookie shaped like a pie and filled with the most amazing fillings. Enough about eating…now on to shooting.

Barbara is an entrepreneur going all in with her delicious invention. The cookie recipe has been handed down from generation to generation and Barbara is taking it to the next level. A few weeks ago we did halloween and thanksgiving pies. Today, I shot her holiday pies…tomorrow I shoot the pies coming out after the holidays. Check out her website – all the photos are done by yours truly.

Oh, they also come in gift boxes with holiday ribbons – makes a great gift for your favorite nosher.

http://www.adoramapix.com/jerrydeutsch/book/italy-2011-copy

The dinner took place at Ocean Place Resort and Spa in Long Branch, NJ. It consisted of four courses and four wines. The wines were from California’s Brookside Winery. Tim, the wine maker, told the story of the seven generations of wine makers, (that’s where, Gen7, the name of the wines comes from) staring in 1832, and how he was resurrecting the company after all the land was sold in 1972 and the land developed in 1982.  A fascinating story.

The first course was miniature flounder tartar…OMG – raw fish! I don’t do raw fish! But, I was brave and tasted it. Much better than I expected. It was accompanied by a sparkling wine.

The next course was a crab cake. It was the best crab cake that I have ever tasted. Yummm. It was so good, that I also ate the one set up for the camera after I shot it. (Shhhh-don’t tell the chef Michael.)  The wine was a Charonnay. The sommelier, Jeffison, explained why the particular wines were chosen for each dish but, I was too busy eating, drinking and taking pictures to listen. (Sorry Jeffison.)

The main course was a venison short rib with butternut squash compote and seared baby asparagus. It was absolutely perfect. And after my wife got over the Bambi thing, she loved it as well as she did the Cabernet that was served.

Being diabetic, I couldn’t eat the dessert but, it looked too good not to taste. It was AMAZING. A pumpkin Creme Brulee with Roasted Kobacha Squash. Perhaps the best dessert I’ve ever tasted. And it was gorgeous as well. It was accompanied by a Muscat Blanc.

Now that I’ve sampled theses delicacies I want more…and they are doing it again in December and I can’t wait. Thank you chef Michael and Ocean Place Resort and Spa for an amazing experience.

We spoke about his upcoming job – 20 recipes for a farm in Arizona. I recommended that we use my food stylist Mike and we worked out the details.

Well, did we all hit it off. What a great team. The photos were amazing! We are certainly going to keep this team together and create more art. I feel a cookbook or two in the works.

You never know who will recommend you. There must be something to this networking thing. And sometimes, you just get lucky.

We were doing some shots of crabs, fish and quail eggs. I have to admit that the resulting photos were really great.

We started with some shots of a bushel of live blue claw crabs and then a pile of cooked crabs. The Old Bay seasoning added a great texture to the cooked crabs.

The next shot was not so cool from my point of view. When Michael asked if I would take a photo of pig’s feet, I was thinking that this was a prepared dish. Instead, Michael wheeled in a whole pig. I was taken aback.
Unfortunately, the huge presentation was too big to move on to the table where I had my strobes set up so I took a couple of shots with available light. Michael got what he wanted but, I am not posting those photos for fear of insulting a PETA member or just someone who is squeamish.

Now on to the fish….first we shot some raw fish then some plates.
We did macro on the skin of a red fish and a sea bass – what great texture, color and pattern. Someone said that it looks like fabric.
Finally, we shot some quail eggs. First, the eggs and then Michael fried one and presented it on pressed octopus.
Really, really pretty but, do people really eat this? I’m glad that I just had to shoot it…thanks Mike for a great day.

We ended up with 57 photos…not a bad day’s work if you ask me.