Food Photography for Hotel Grand Bretagne
Going through the photography process, challenging my self in new methods as a photography speaker, clients are always the best "creative friends" to unlock views and angles in order to please them and their viewers. Food photography, a common field for magazines and advertising as well, it is a field that challenge the artist - food photographer to brake the rules and through his creativity, to serve a well cooked photography plate.
"In a spirit of renewal, Executive Chef Asterios Koustoudis of the Grand Bretagne and King George hotels in Athens has appointed new heads of restaurants at each venue. In doing this he's done what all good chefs should do, and used tried and tested ingredients in innovative ways to create excellent new results Experienced chef Nikos Livadias, who has worked in leading restaurants in Athens and on Santorini and Mykonos, arrives as the new chef de cuisine at Tudor Hall, promising to add a new dimension to modem Greek cuisine. He brings with him high aesthetic standards and a talent for creating dishes with fine lines and geometric shapes that entice at first glance. Food photography continuous with the young chef Giannis Liokas after stints in London at restaurants such as Fera at Claridge's and Davies and Brook with Daniel Humm. He returns to Athens to take the position of chef de cuisine at GB Roof Garden. The restaurant's menu remains definitively Mediterranean, but Liokas' style is a shade more homey, and the food is filling and no for the soul. Clearly devoted to creative Greek cuisine, Asterios Koustoudis is promoting fresh seasonal produce across all the menus focusing on dean flavors and supporting smaller, high-quality local producers. These underlying principles are evident in both restaurant and are Needy translated to the dishes themselves. As for the meal's sweet epilogue, the talented new assistant pastry chef Alexandros Koufas will supervise the preparation of recipes created by the distinguished 'Messier Arnaud Lehrer, while also creating his own stunning desserts for the degustation menu - impressive and delicious, like every ending should be. Beginnings too, should do this fantastic four has been brought together to create unforgettable high-quality gastronomic experiences in Athens".
c
Jean Marie Hoffman
Portrait photography of Jean Marie Hoffman, chef of the Residence of France in Greece for the French-Greek friendship issue of Kappa Magazine Kathimerini.
The Monks & Cuisine of Mount Athos
As Greece entered the pre-Easter season of Lent, Kathimerini newspaper’s food magazine, Gastronomos, published a special 35-page section on the lenten cuisine of Mount Athos, featuring recipes that have been a best-kept secret for centuries. It is a photographic record of the prominent figures of monastic cooking seen though the most basic of human enjoyments – food. In creating this historically and religiously important record of all the rich flavours of Athonias, I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to experience, sample and preserve it in images. The subjects are monks whose hard work is accompanied by respect for the “garden of the Virgin Mary”, or Panagia, as Mount Athos is also known.
The Community of Mount Athos
The Agio Oros or Holy Mountain – is an autonomous monastic state on the Athos Peninsula and is among the few in the world, along with Lhasa in Tibet and the Vatican in Rome. It has been there for 1,000 years, since the Pontian monk Athanasius, later known as St Athanasius the Athonite, founded the Monastery of the Great Lavra and athonite monasticism. It is a self-governing section of the Greek State, located on the Athos Peninsula of Halkidiki, in the Macedonian region of northern Greece. It includes 20 monasteries and monastic institutions and is the centre of Orthodox Christian monasticism, possessing monumental treasures of inestimable national, historical, religious, literary and cultural value on a global scale. Each area of the peninsula consists of a dominant monastery and various other monastic settlements around it (cloisters, cells, huts, seating, retreats). All of the monasteries are communal, meaning the monks share common services, prayers, housing, dining and work. Inaccessible to women, it is a unique destination for the Orthodox in search of true faith. The monasteries are part of nature as it generously offers all of its beauty and wealth, nourishing not only with its purity but with its extraordinary flavours.
The experience from Holly Mount Athos and photoshoot for “Gastronomos”
Mount Athos is not just one thing – it is many things combined; and each monk with his own personal history. They chant along with the sounds of nature, uniquely tuned to a divine frequency. Peaceful, calm, restful. You can hear about all the miracles that have occurred and changed the lives of people within and without the place. A feeling of isolation engulfs you from the moment you board the little boat, giving you a sense that you are suspended between the sea and sky, as Gastronomos chief editor, Aggelos Rentoulas and fellow traveller very astutely noted in his article.
The bounty of nature has gifted it with the best it had to offer. The monks’ respect of it and their arduous labours are the unrivalled components of their daily lives. They produce various goods to support themselves which are known throughout the world. Farmers and fishermen contribute to the basics of their cuisine, providing valuable goods and ingredients essential to all types of Athonite recipes. As guests of Athonite chef Father Epiphanios, we took part in this communal life for week in Kathisma, Mylopotamos, next to the blessed vineyards, the dolphins we watched from the shore, and the fisherman and farmer who respectfully converse in this melting pot of gastronomic knowledge and experience.
It was a great personal, gastronomic and photographic experience for me, as alongside Gastronomos magazine, we contributed to preserving, respecting and communicating the secrets and wealth of the Holy Mountain. We were fortunate to visit and record 15 of the 20 monasteries of Mount Athos. The monks there have preserved their secrets and traditions well, both the cuisine of the holy place and the characteristics of each individual place. It may have been the simplest but also most delicious type of food I have ever tasted. It was as if the flavour of Mount Athos possessed another dimension, another level; perhaps it was the location, or the purity and combination of the simple ingredients; perhaps the talent and care of the monks who perceive simplicity as enjoyment and combine the two in the best way possible. Faith and spiritual growth make a stop at the palate and the stomach through these plain and pure ingredients. When prepared with respect, love and great care, perhaps it can be another expression of the divine.
And finally, the memories of all of the above become mental and spiritual riches as we board the boat for the return journey. Published on March 2014
