Posted by katie ett on May 15, 2013 – 12:00 pm
If you read my food blog, you’re probably tired of hearing about my love of Chef David Santos’s food, so instead I’ll just brag about myself and how one of my photos from his restaurant opened the “Where to Take Mom for Mother’s Day“ article in the NY Daily News:
I’ve absolutely loved cutting my teeth as a photographer on the mean streets of the NYC fine dining scene. There’s something really rewarding about being stuck to a seat in a restaurant with “mood lighting” where I’m trying to be inconspicuous with my camera so the chef won’t ban me and still somehow coming out with a shot that doesn’t embarrass my good name. I think half the reason I like food photography so much is that restaurants make it such a challenge.
But. Being invited to privately photograph Chef Santos’s food is dreamy. I get to stand up, move around the table, crouch, or hold the camera above my head. I get to arrange napkins and flatware. I get to request a glass of wine from the bar to add to the background. I get to ask the owner to turn up the lights over the table if I’m having to set my ISO above 100. I get to put the plate on the chair or the bar or the floor if it’ll make for a better shot. I get to tell the kitchen when I’m ready for the next dish. And then I get to eat everything, too.
Here are some of my favourite photos from the shoot:
The exterior, shot with the brand new 10-20mm f/3.5 wide-angle lens Kamran bought me just before he moved away last month. (Thanks, Kam.)
The Louro interior: a little bit country, and a little bit books-all-over-the-walls.
watermelon radish, baby lettuces, housemade buttermilk vinaigrette
octopus bolognese, hand cut tagliatelle, goose pancetta, parmesan
pork belly, uni, togarashi cabbage, shiso puree
skate chop, watercress purée, watercress, meyer lemon vinaigrette, rhubarb
walleye, guajillio sauce, avocado purée, hominy, onion ring
lamb shoulder rack, pea-mint purée, english purée, rye berries, carrots, pea shoots, lamb jus
white asparagus ice cream, strawberry compote, shortbread crumble
(cross-posted to my food blog)
Posted by katie ett on May 18, 2012 – 4:00 pm
Sometimes I feel like I don’t live New-Yorkily enough. Every time I go straight home after work to catch up on “Law & Order”, a part of me thinks about all of the girls my age who are sitting at swank bars with their swank friends trying to get boys to buy them whatever cocktail matches their swank dress. Every time I go to sleep before midnight because I have to wake up early to go to the gym and then take a shower and then watch the morning news like some geriatric, a part of me thinks of all of the girls my age at the Neon Indian or the Beach House show, staying out until 4 a.m. and then rolling out of bed again a few hours later in the same clothes to go to their start-up jobs in SoHo or DUMBO.
But I realized a minute ago that:
• tonight, I’m going with Kamran and our good friends to a second meal with a pedigreed chef who hosts secret dinners in his home
• tomorrow, I’m going to be an extra in a movie, and it’s not even the first time I’ve done that, either
• the next day, I’m going to the best restaurant in New York City for the third time with Kamran to celebrate his many accomplishments
I’m not saying this to brag. I’m saying this to tell you that I will not be made to feel bad about my life, so quit expecting me to be Carrie Bradshaw. Or Miranda Hobbes. You expect me to be the lesbian, don’t you? DON’T YOU?
Posted by katie ett on May 7, 2012 – 10:30 am
My favourite things of the moment are featured in a beautiful layout by Lisa of Elembee today! Here’s a little taste:
See me talk about things I’m “crushing on” and what’s on my “bucket list” and other words only Lisa could coax me into using.
Check out my second NYC neighborhood “erotica” on the NabeWise blog.
For those of you at work, the dirtiest thing in it is the word manbits.
For those of you not at work, please feel free to write your own slash based on the relationship between the Wall Street bull and the 1 train and submit it in the comments.
My jack-of-all-trades friend Alan Corey of A Million Bucks by 30: How to Overcome a Crap Job, Stingy Parents, and a Useless Degree to Become a Millionaire Before (or After) Turning Thirty fame is a bigshot over at NabeWise, a new website devoted to revealing what makes NYC and San Francisco neighborhoods worth living in.
He asked me to do a series of guest posts about the neighborhoods I love most . . . in the style of a romance novel. Having never read a single romance novel in my life because I’m too much of a literary elitist, I was obviously the perfect choice for the task.
But they ran my post, anyway!
And it’s almost word-for-word what I sent them! Although the things they decided to leave out were obviously the best parts. Such as the phrase “like a mouthful of man-nectar between parted lips” and my mention of “buttflaps on old-timey pajamas”. Who doesn’t love buttflaps?! What I’m saying is–if you notice the same weird mistakes in the article that I do, rest assured that I wasn’t the one who made them. Not that I need to defend my reputation to you assholes.
Anyway, go read my post! And (please) make all of your friends read it, too, so I’ll have motivation to start on a super-sexy blogging-related Harlequin romance novel.
