The Mississippi Vegan’s Heirloom Carrot Salad

The Mississippi Vegan’s Heirloom Carrot Salad

Timothy Pakron (@mississippivegan) grows heirloom carrots in his garden. He picked some for this recipe, then cleaned, peeled and cut them into matchsticks. He added tarragon, thyme and curly parsley from his herb garden, then tossed with whole-grain mustard, red wine vinegar, olive oil, black pepper.

He loves the Coupe. In fact, he called it a food stylist’s dream, because it’s a form that has a lot of room to display the food. And the shape makes it easy to make sauce on dishes look great, too. He considered the salad’s orange and green colors when he chose a Taro Coupe for plating.

Borage flowers from the garden! Timothy added them after the dish had been moved to the place where he would photograph it. Instead of making sure that all the herbs are right-side up or spacing out the flowers evenly, he goes for what he called “perfectly imperfect” placement and positioning some of the herbs flowers sideways or upside down. It adds different shades of color. You’ll know if adding more of any one thing will make the composition look more beautiful and feel more finished. In this case, he added more parsley.

More Food Styling Tips

Use utensils to tell a story. Photographing a salad with two forks suggests you’re about to serve it to multiple people, Timothy notes.

To create a feeling of movement for the eye, he likes to photograph dishes on a wooden table that has grain and lines where the planks meet.

He recommends photographing in a room that has north-facing windows. The light will be soft and consistent, he said.

Beware glossy dishes! They can cause glare or highlights you do not want in photographs. He likes East Fork glazes for their opacity and low sheen.

Use dishes that draw the eye to the food. Timothy sees the unglazed rim on East Fork pottery as a border that helps to organize the composition.

Think about the palette, especially for shoots that have multiple dishes or longer-term projects like cookbooks. Make sure everything goes together. Timothy likes East Fork because the glazes look so good together. Thanks, Timothy!

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