C-CAP Collaboration: Food Styling Curricula and Competition
Several years ago, ABZFF began supporting the Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), a workforce development nonprofit that partners with high school culinary arts programs across the country. C-CAP offers enrichment education, scholarship opportunities, job training, and more to over 20,000 underserved students.
In summer 2021, we met with C-CAP staff leadership, Tanya Steel and Jennifer Solomon, and discussed how advancing the culinary arts is integral to ABZFF’s mission, as it recognizes our Aunt Ann’s career as a pioneering food stylist. This conversation continued over several weeks as we brainstormed ideas about how our organizations could collaborate to honor Ann’s professional legacy while helping to educate and support young culinary artists. Tanya had suggested a food styling initiative, and soon we were creating the framework for both an online curricula and Instagram-based competition.
The curricula includes a three-part video series, “The Basics of Food Styling,” with food stylist, recipe developer, and culinary producer Erin Barnhart. Erin expertly leads students through styling an Herby Fried Egg on Sourdough; a Farmer’s Market Salad with Labneh-Buttermilk Dressing; and, finally, The Perfect Slice of Cake.
The series was designed to prepare students who are entering the food styling competition, which challenges participants to style a piece of cake that reflects their heritage. It offers cash prizes for 1st through 3rd places and a People’s Choice Award. Part of the judging criteria requires students to take their own competition entry photographs, so C-CAP asked one of their alumni, food photographer Hip Torres, to create a series of engaging Instagram reels that offer guidance on how to photograph food for optimal results.
(l) The Perfect Slice of Cake by Erin Barnhart
(r) Food Styling Photography by Hip Torres
When thinking about a name for the competition, we remembered a 1976 quote from Ann in a profile about her work that appeared in the Filmmakers Newsletter. At that time, food stylists were known as home economists. Noting their many talents and skills in both preparing food and styling it for print and screen, she had said, “Our work can go far beyond cooking; we’re able and willing to make a genuine creative contribution.”
Beyond Cooking: The Ann B. Zekauskas Food Styling Competition for C-CAP will accept entries through February 25. Each of us will serve as judges for the competition, along with C-CAP leadership and industry experts. The winners will be announced on March 10 – Ann’s birthday. It seemed to us that there could be no better way to celebrate Ann’s life and work than to celebrate the creative successes of young culinary artists.
–Liz, John, and Suzy