Four Seasons Athens Hotel food photography
In this food photography hotel campaign for Four Seasons Palace Hotel Athens, the chef of the restaurant Sergio Favata from Sicily, learned to make tomato sauce in a jar (conserva di pomodori) when he was a child. Next to his grandmother, he also learned the recipe for oregano focaccia, which today takes 35-40 hours to prepare in the kitchen of Mercato. Imagine walking into a delicatessen with fine Italian products – from cheeses and cold meats to olives, breadsticks and many types of bread. And what do the two Italian chefs not bring from their homeland: excellent Acquerello Carnaroli rice, anchovies from Sicily, roe from Sardinia, San Marzano tomatoes, Pecorino Fiore Sardo D.O.P, Pecorino al Tartufo, Caciocavallo di Grotta from Puglia, Gorgonzola, and of course Buffalo Mozzarella D.O.P.
It’s one of the Mediterranean’s most enduring traditions: family and friends gathered around a heaving table, decompressing and reconnecting over delicious dishes made with love. A new weekly reason to bring loved ones together with their grand Pranzo Della Domenica – a sensory recreation of the traditional Sunday brunch, Italian style.
“In Italy, just as in Greece, the traditional Sunday lunch is the glue than bonds families and friends together,” comments Sicilian-born Chef Sergio. “Antipasti platters, succulent seafood, grilled meats, fresh homemade pastas – my earliest memories are of huge sharing plates enjoyed to a soundtrack of chatter and laughter.”
It’s this convivial scene made not just for the Hotel food photography, but in real– equally familiar to Tuscan-born Chef Roberto – that informs the traditional family-centric spirit of each Mercato Sunday Brunch. Light-as-a cloud Foccacia (made to Chef Sergio’s grandmother’s recipe) heads the breads and grissinis that begin the lavish buffet spread: as abundant and authentic as Mercato’s Italian market name-sake.
The finest cuts of Prosciutto, Capocollo, Salame and Pancetta vie for space with creamy artisanal cheeses and a Seafood & Raw Bar packed with Fine De Claire Oysters and Clams, Marinated Mussels and Seabass Ceviche. Salads range from simple Caesar to the melt-in-the mouth refinement of Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio with Rocket, Parmesan and Truffle Mayo – or create one at the Salad Bar. Barbecue favourites include zesty “Sicilian” Grilled Baby Chicken and Pork Spare Ribs that fall off the bone, and that’s before one even reaches the freshly handcrafted pastas and carving stations.
Costa Navarino Resort food photography
In this food photography for Costa Navarino Hotel in Greece, main object is the recipes with Navarino Icons products. You may not be able to pack the Messinian sun, sea or landscape into your suitcase, but you can certainly take some of its wonderful flavors back home to treat yourself to a Messinian meal. With more than 50 international distinctions so far, the Navarino Icons line of select products from local producers provides you with the ingredients and the inspiration to adopt a healthy lifestyle with all the Mediterranean diet benefits, while indulging in the delicious flavors of Greek food.
I live in a country with a great food culture, that produce a great variety with unique quality of raw ingredients. Many different tastes and cuisines, from one end of Greece to the other, give a rich culture, a polymorphic taste in such a small country.
Food is such an important part of vacations and food photography of every hotel or resort should bring this quality to the viewer. Costa Navarino is a unique combination of beautiful geography, friendly weather, local products. Because of all that has become one of the most known destinations for family vacations worldwide, ideal place to rest body and mind.
In this set, breakfast has these qualities, made of fresh and pure ingredients from the surrounding area of Kalamata and gives to each visitor the feeling of hospitality one needs to relax and feel joy. This year Greece was named 6th Best Country to visit worldwide and 3rd Friendliest in Europe following Condé Nast Traveler’s 2022 lists. The Westin Resort, Costa Navarino and the The Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort, Costa Navarino is one of the best resorts and hotels in Greece.
Nana Hotels food photography
For this food photography mission I have visited the Island of Crete and the well known 5* Nana Hotels. Crete is one of the most important gastronomic destinations in Greece and in global level, with a unique diversity of natural beauty. A place that one can have the experience to taste the pure and healthy mediterranean diet.
Nana Princess resort offers a supreme 5* experience of hospitality and VIP services, with a generous selection of 102 immaculately designed suites and villas.
It has been an honor for me to create a sort of photos, designing food photography for the delicious dining experience of Nana Hotels made by the hand of the Michelin star awarded chef, Lefteris Lazarou. The Hotel menu serves an exciting selection of local, Mediterranean and International dishes. Carpe Diem Restaurant is the heart and soul of the resort, inviting guests to relish delectable mouth-watering dishes in exquisite surroundings. In this food photography session I had include the design of a huge Buffet Breakfast which includes local, fresh and colorful ingredients, in front of the great hotel view of Aegean big blue sea.
At the pool restaurant the food photography includes pictures from a selection of delicious lunch dishes. As the evening descends, an à la carte menu treats diners to a taste sensation with exquisite dishes. Mouthwatering meat cuts and a variety of delectable fresh pasta are specially prepared; inspired by delicious local cuisine, aromatic Mediterranean flavours and innovative international trends.
The amazing Eternal Blue restaurant which sits on the waterfront, next to the lapping waves of the Nana Princess private beach, gave a great backdrop for close up pictures of dishes with great evening colors. Pictures of fresh fish and seafood as well as colorful sushi selection prepared and served with true passion. It was food photography and dining experience that will remain unforgettable, with creations that seducing all the senses. I truly suggest this very special location. Enjoy the pictures.
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".
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Cretan Food & Culture
A travel tribute about Cretan life, food and gastronomy culture for Gastronomos Magazine. With the travel and food editor Nena Demetriou, we crossed over Rethymno mountains, covering the cretan life through the people of small local productions, like farmers, cheese & honey makers, shepherds and many other people that in open heart, generosity and hospitality, made us feel Crete like our home. Some of the published portrait photographs and moments from this food & travel tribute is following.
Yogurt Taste
An editorial food photography portrait shot for Gastronomos Magazine of Kathimerini in Athens Greece
