For this week’s on Food Blogger Spotlight, I’ve got a special, end-of-year treat for you! The lovely Matt Armendariz of MattBites is here to share some food and photography love with you, my fabulous Wasabimon readers. An accomplished food photographer, Matt has produced images for Time Magazine, Bon Apetit, MarthaStewart.com and more. And then there’s his blog, which quickly became a favorite among the culinary bloggerati. You’ll see some of his work sprinkled throughout this post, and if you’re hungry for more, his portfolio is ready and waiting for your perusal.

There are many reasons why I love this guy, but probably the first and foremost is his infectious enthusiasm for life. He’s a sparkly ball of fun, and I challenge you to spend five minutes talking to him and not walk away with a smile. Go ahead. I dare you. If you can pull this off, you have a stinky gym sock where your heart should be.

Here’s Matt – please give him a warm welcome!

Ah, this is easy! I cannot be without a great olive oil, sea salt and lemons. I think I could do just about anything with those things, and if all else fails I could make preserved lemons!

But seriously, with those things I feel like it is the basis for so many great things. Because I’m around food all the time, sometimes dinner is only roasted vegetables. I’ll slice a few onions, eggplant, squash and potatoes, toss in olive oil and roast, maybe add herbs at the end. I also use lemon zest and juice for so many things and have found with those three things I can make a simple dinner. Roasted chicken, a piece of fish, veggies. You get the drift.

Imagine you moved to the smallest apartment possible – a shoebox, really – and you only had room for a single cookbook. Of all your cookbooks, which one would you keep? Why do you love it so?

It’s have to be Judy Rodger’s Zuni Cookbook. Not only does Zuni conjure up fantastic memories of my meals there over the years, but it encompasses a cooking style and genre that I love. I’m a nut for anything Mediterranean, Cal-med, you name it. There are simple recipes and also some elaborate dishes that take planning. And when I don’t know what to eat, I can always find something from the book to satisfy me.

Blogs have the potential to be so many things, from personal journals to outrageous adventure reports. What is the most important thing you put into your blog, and what is the most important thing you get out of it?

The most important thing I put into my blog is my voice, my ability to communicate honestly and from my personal point of view without restrictions or limits. As a former marketer and art director, you use your skills to communicate but without any personal angle — that’s part of the job. But with my blog I’m able to be me, for better or worse. I also put a great deal of time and energy into posts, treating them as if they were story assignments. If you blog, you realize how time-consuming this can actually be. But it’s worth it.

What I get out of it is much greater than what I put in, though. I have met the most amazing people and made unique connections that I don’t think would have ever happened without blogging. I’ve traveled the world because of blogging, something that still blows my mind. But I’ve managed to find a close-knit group of fellow bloggers who have become my family, quite literally. I laugh silently when people talk about the web being cold or impersonal. For me it’s the exact opposite. That’s the biggest gift I’ve received from blogging.

Bonus photography question: Humans are visual creatures, and great images are a huge part of a blog’s draw. What makes your personal photographic style uniquely yours? What elements do you think set your images apart from other pro food photographers?

When I pick up a camera to make an image, it’s not just me pressing a shutter. I have a background in art direction and graphic design, and I tend to incorporate those elements within each frame. I think of graphic elements and ways to use my image long after I snap the shutter. I’m also a fan of composition, whether intentional or accidental, and that plays an important role in what I do.

And if we’re talking about elements that make images different, I’d have to say my love of propping really comes into play. I’m married to a food and prop stylist and have amassed quite a collection of surfaces, linens, plates, bowls, you name it. I was teaching a workshop at my studio recently and someone asked me about a wood bread board they were using and where it came from. It didn’t dawn on me how unique it was until I told them it was 105 years old from an old bakery. Maybe it needs to go back on its own shelf now.

Thanks, Matt, for stopping in! It’s always a pleasure.

Click here for more Food Bloggers Spotlight interviews.

Here are a few of my favorite posts from Matt Bites:

• Genie In A Bottle? Her Name Is Colatura.
• Halloween Scary Apples
• Alfajores a la Adam
• Capirotada Bread Pudding

Next on Food Blogger Spotlight we’ve got Arnold Gatilao from Inuyaki. Inuyaki covers an amazing breath of topics, from sous vide to chicharrones to Filipino fare. He’s a Yountville regular, and I’m convinced that one day he’s going to know Thomas Keller on a first-name basis.

Besides the good eats, Arnold’s also a great photographer – and he does it all with a magically delicious point and shoot. You’ll see some of his photos throughout this post and there are lots more on his site. I’ve also got to say that Inuyaki.com is a shining example of how minimal design can be really, really well done. I love his layout.

So, what does Inuyaki mean? Here’s a snippet from Arnold’s about page:

“If you’re curious, inuyaki means “grilled dog” in Japanese. I’m Filipino, but I thought it was funny name since my people do have a history of dog eating. I’ve never actually eaten dog, but the name popped into my head one day, and I thought it would be a funny name for a food blog.”

There you have it. Let’s welcome Arnold, and don’t be shy – say hi in the comments!

We all have staples that we couldn’t live without. What three ingredients do you *always* have in your kitchen and why? I’m not talking snacks like chips and hummus, but rather ingredients you use all the time in your cooking.
Bacon, eggs, and pasta. You can do a lot with all three ingredients. My wife improvises a lot of fun stuff with eggs, and no matter what, unless there’s a lot of mushrooms in it, it’s really good. Oh, we also have cans of SPAM on hand… in case of emergencies.

Imagine you moved to the smallest apartment possible – a shoebox, really – and you only had room for a single cookbook. Of all your cookbooks, which one would you keep? Why do you love it so?
I just got Ad Hoc at Home, Thomas Keller’s new book, and I think it’s a great all-around cookbook with a lot of instruction alongside some amazing recipes. Plus it’s the only cookbook that I feel personally connected to since I’m a regular at the restaurant and have eaten a lot of the dishes in the book. It’s exciting to bring them home, but I’ll still make the 75 mile drive to eat there, too.

When you’re looking for new recipes (or creating one of your own), what is your number one priority? What makes you pick one recipe over another?
Ironically, considering my love for Keller and his books, I lean towards easy recipes and simple preparations. If I have the time and/or patience at a particular moment, I’ll tackle something more complicated, but ease is definitely the first consideration. For example, I love pad thai, but the dish has so many components to it that the prep time alone doesn’t seem worth it to me when I can get it from my favorite Thai restaurant for under $10. I usually save the complicated or laborious stuff for when I’m entertaining friends because the effort is worth it.

Blogs have the potential to be so many things, from personal journals to outrageous adventure reports. What is the most important thing you put into your blog, and what is the most important thing you get out of it?
I think my blog is an accurate reflection of who I am… it’s all over the place and reflects my varied interests in food. I think curiosity is the most important thing I put it into the blog, because most of the things I cook and chronicle are usually lingering questions like, “Can I make my own pastrami?”

The best part about blogging in general is making connections with other bloggers or readers who genuinely appreciate your work. I think it’s amazing that people actually read what I post, and I’m always taken aback when people tell me they are fans of the blog. I love it when people tell me that something I wrote made them hungry, but even moreso when they say they were empowered to cook the dish, especially if it’s something they’ve never considering making.

Bonus question: Humans are visual creatures, and great images are a huge part of a blog’s draw. What makes your personal photographic style uniquely yours? What elements do you think set your images apart from other pro food photographers?
I don’t think my style is all that original, but I lean towards macros, especially when it lets you see a variety of textures in the food. I like angles and lines in photos, so you’ll often see pictures taken from the corner of a serving dish so that the lines of the platter become part of the composition. If I’m at a restaurant where plating is an important consideration, I work to make sure that the essence of the chef’s artistic vision is properly captured. My wife tends to do the more artistic compositions because that’s her background, and I do what I can to try and keep up with her.

Thanks for chatting, Arnold!

See?? I swear, they’ll be best buds soon.

Click here for more Food Bloggers Spotlight interviews.

Here are a few of my favorite posts from Inuyaki:

• Chicharrones (Fried Pork Rinds)
• Confit Byaldi (a.k.a. Ratatouille a la Remy)
• Adventures in Sous Vide
• A Sous-Vide Christmas
• Making Tapa with Dad

For the next installment of our Food Blogger Spotlight, I’m interviewing Seattle’s upcoming food photography superstar: Charity Burggraaf. I highly recommend you check out her amazing portfolio at CharityLynne.com, and you can keep up with her daily adventures on her food photography blog.

I’ve been trying to come up with an adjective to describe Charity’s work, and all I can say is that it sings. Her sense of color and light is absolutely captivating. I mean, just look at the photos peppering this post! It’s no wonder she’s racked up an impressive resume in a relatively short period of time, with her photos appearing in Culture, Seattle Magazine and others. She really adheres to her mission statement: “I strive for beauty, integrity, and quality in every image I create and in everything I do.”

Ok, I’m done gushing. Please welcome Charity, as she share a glimpse of her blogging (and photographing!) life.

I am a huge fan of garlic, it is the base of nearly every savory “made-up” meal that I create. That and jalapeno – fresh jalapeno chopped up.  I always try to incorporate it into things, because I’ve been told they are good for you, and I believe it! Plus they add a nice little kick that lets your taste buds know they are alive. 

And lastly, chocolate chips. I don’t incorporate them into everything I make (obviously), but when a recipe calls for chocolate or looks like it should, I will add twice the amount – every time.  My boyfriend hates that I do this and at times it has backfired on me and become a gooey mess, but it was a chocolate gooey mess – which means there is no harm, no foul.

Imagine you moved to the smallest apartment possible – a shoebox, really – and you only had room for a single cookbook. Of all your cookbooks, which one would you keep? Why do you love it so? 

I’ve always been partial to The Betty Crocker Cookbook, that hard bound, red one that has been around for years.  Mostly for the cookie and quick bread recipes, since I’m not sure if I’ve even ventured into any of the other dishes.  Growing up, I only needed a cookbook for baking cookies and such, so I never used it to create meals – those sorts of things I just made up in my head. I suppose having that cookbook around would be nice so that I could always make the peanut butter cookies that I made as a child, or the banana bread that I would routinely make as a teenager.

Humans are visual creatures, and great images are a huge part of a blog’s draw. What makes your personal photographic style uniquely yours? What elements do you think set your images apart from other pro food photographers?

My blog has a lot to do with my photography, as it is a food photography blog.  I consider my style to be clean and simple almost to the point of it becoming a graphic element to some degree.  I’ve been told that my work is very pop-y and cheerful, which I suppose gives my images character and a little life, even if they are on a white or plain background.  I don’t know what more to say about that really… I like to experiment from time to time, go in different directions with my photography, find work I admire and try to recreate it in my own unique way.  I think that helps me grow as a photographer and keeps things fresh on the blog as well.  That’s what is so fun about a blog, you can play!

Blogs have the potential to be so many things, from personal journals to outrageous adventure reports. What is the most important thing you put into your blog, and what is the most important thing you get out of it?

What I have found to be the most important thing to put into a blog is you heart.  Which was something I tried to separate from my writing for a long time on my blog (might sound strange, but I didn’t want to get too emotional – as it is my work).  But I was amazed at the amount of support I got when I decided to open myself up a bit and talk about my mom and her battle with breast cancer this past year.  Come to find out that my most popular posts often don’t have to do with food at all! 

I’ve found that people are interested in my life, and not just my work. Heck, if they wanted to see my work they could visit my website!  I’m learning that by opening myself up, it in turn creates a sense of community and a great support system of foodies and photographers – something I’ve often heard about and been a part of on the outside – but I’m still in awe of it happening on my own little blog.  And I’m grateful for it.

Thanks for visiting, Charity!

Click here for more Food Bloggers Spotlight interviews.

Here are a few of my favorite posts from Charity’s Blog:

• A Photographer in Paris
• Italian Plums
• Heat Wave

For the next installment of our Food Blogger Spotlight, we’ve got a very talented food photographer whose work has appeared in various books, magazines and websites, including Gourmet.com, Epicurious.com and Seattle Magazine. I’m talking about Lara Ferroni, and if you’re at all interested in food, you’ve seen her work.

Lara actually has several blogs (more than me, even!), though you’re probably most familiar with her site Still Life With…. She also has a gorgeous cooking blog at Cook and Eat as well as her photography portfolio at Plates and Packs. I highly recommend checking out her various homes on the web – it seems that everything she touches is visually gorgeous.

The reason I love Lara’s work is that she has a certain quality of light in her photos, and it gives them a certain quality of life. It’s certainly something I have a tough time doing in my own photography, so it’s especially impressive to learn that she’s completely self-taught as a photographer. See for yourself – the light in her work really speaks for itself:

Here’s Lara, answering a few short questions about her cooking, blogging and photographic life.

We all have staples that we couldn’t live without. What three ingredients do you *always* have in your kitchen and why? I’m not talking snacks like chips and hummus, but rather ingredients you use all the time in your cooking.

It’s hard to narrow it down to three… of course I have baking staples at all times, things like flour, baking powder, sugar. Those are pretty boring though. I also have a fairly large spice collection that I keep well stocked. I think my favorite of those is Piment d’Espelette which is a fine, dried chile powder. I also really like cooking with smoked salt… I usually have a couple of varieties of varying intensity.  Also, a good, fruity olive oil… one that is great on salads, drizzled over grilled meat, or even usable in sweet dishes like tea cakes or ice cream. 

Imagine you moved to the smallest apartment possible – a shoebox, really – and you only had room for a single cookbook. Of all your cookbooks, which one would you keep? Why do you love it so?

Oh, that would really kill me. I don’t suppose I can just say my computer can I? When it comes down to it, it gives me the greatest range of recipes and it’s searchable. But, I do love my printed cookbooks… so it would probably be the Marie Claire Seasonal Kitchen. It is packed with beautiful photos, recipes that I would want to cook, and it’s big enough that it could be used as a step stool or a weapon in dire need. 

Humans are visual creatures, and great images are a huge part of a blog’s draw. What makes your personal photographic style uniquely yours? What elements do you think set your images apart from other pro food photographers?

I’d love someone to answer that for me! People say that my photos have a certain warmth to them. I know that my styling tends to be rather simple with the food as the focus. I don’t know if that really sets me apart from other photographers though… a lot of modern photographers do the same. I think it’s hard to describe with words how my photos are different. It may be my color or prop choices or lighting choices. Or a particular angle that I gravitate toward. It’s a fair question, but I’m afraid that I’m to close to my own work to quite be able to put my finger on it. 

Blogs have the potential to be so many things, from personal journals to outrageous adventure reports. What is the most important thing you put into your blog, and what is the most important thing you get out of it?

My blog has always been a place for me to help me remember. I started it long ago as a place to talk about some of my favorite restaurants, but it soon became a place to talk about my favorite recipes. Or, recipes that I was just trying. I have a terrible memory when it comes to things like that. And, I don’t tend to cook the same thing more than once or twice. So the blog has become my backup memory so I always know what I’ve done. Over time though, it also became a great way for me to practice writing and photography and to develop those skills and get feedback (as well as work) from people. Although I haven’t had much time to blog lately, it still is a great way for people to find me for work. 

Thanks for the insight, Lara. It’s been great having you!

Click here for more Food Bloggers Spotlight interviews.

Here are a few of my favorite posts from Still Life With…:

• When Good Food Goes Bad
• Interview with Annabelle Breakey
• Tips on Shooting Cocktails
• Hard as Pie

So many people loved my Star Wars food photography post that I decided to upload a few more photos. Turns out it’s a lot of fun playing with toys as a grown up.

And, this post also marks the beginning of a contest! Come up with captions for the series below and then leave them in a comment. Whoever comes up with the best storyline will win a free copy of The Clone Wars on DVD, compliment of yours truly. Contest ends Monday, September 21st.

Be sure to include your freaking email address so that I can actually get a hold of you if you win!

The other day I was playing around in my “studio” (which is actually just my dining room table covered with photography equipment) when my Star Wars obsessed husband sidled his storm trooper action figure into the middle of my raspberry setup. I thought you might enjoy what happened next.