Food as Art - Artifice Podcast Interview

I was recently invited on as a guest on Emily Merrell’s podcast, Artifice. Here’s a little bit about the podcast:

“Join professional musician Emily Merrell for conversations with artists of all kinds. Together, we examine the mysteries of our own experiences, our muses and fears, our gifts and foibles, our beliefs about the origins of creativity, and the secret magic we’ve discovered in our unique creative processes.”

I was moved by the way that Emily sees and acknowledges art in so many forms, and it felt like such a privilege to represent those of us who use food as our artistic medium. Emily put me as such ease as we did a deep dive of when I first aspired to be an artist as a child, and the winding path I unintentionally journeyed along to get to where I am as a creator today. We talked about everything from collecting antiques, to my almost-crippling imposter syndrome, to how important it is for me to help other people create for the sake of their own happiness.

If you are interested in taking a peek into how my weird brain works, give the interview a listen.

ARTIFICE · Ep. 233: Lily Morello

Food Photography with a Phone - Interview with the My Food Lens Podcast

GO STRAIGHT TO THE PODCAST EPISODE >>

Yes, it’s true—everything that you see on this website, as well as my Instagram, to-date, was shot and edited on my iPhone X.

How I got here was entirely from a combination of happenstance and laziness but at this point, one thing I am most proud of with my work is becoming a champion of phone photography. If I can help others feel encouraged to see that the quality of a photo is about the skill of the photographer and not having “better” (read: more expensive) camera gear, I can die happy knowing I made a positive impact on the world, helping to make one form of artistic expression feel more accessible to more people.

My friend Dyutima recently gave me the opportunity to share this message by inviting me onto her podcast, My Food Lens. This was such a fun experience for me; being someone who doesn’t absorb information as well through audio input, I actually had never listened to a podcast at all prior to listening to my own interview! I was actually pretty shocked, and pleasantly surprised, that listening back to my own voice did not feel completely obnoxious to me, and I am so grateful for the positive feedback I have received so far. Dyutima made me feel like I was just chatting away with a friend that I was meeting “face to face” for the first time, after corresponding for so long via direct messages.

In the episode linked below, I tried to share answers to the following questions:

• Phones can be tricky because of their wide angle lens and lens distortion. What would be your 5 main tips for killer phone photography?

• How important is light in phone photography? How do you work with light shooting with a phone? Do you use manipulators, is there a specific part of the house you shoot in?

• What are your key styling techniques that are suited for photographing with a phone?

• What is your editing application of choice and are there any hacks you can share?

• Has photographing with a phone ever held you back from approaching clients or striking a deal?

• Is it challenging to work with brands if one photographs with a phone? How do you navigate through it?

• Who would you say phone photography is for? Influencers, social media content creators, professional photographers?

• If someone chooses to shoot with a phone, how can they grow as a photographer? What skills should they focus on to improve their photography?

If you’ve been wishing to learn more about my process for shooting and editing all my photos on my phone (including all my client work!), give one of these a listen:

My Best 9 of 2020

I rounded up my best 9 photos from 2020 on Instagram—not based on the greatest number of likes received, but the photos that I was the most proud of this past year. Here’s a little more detail about the dishes in the photos I chose.

Gochujang Fried Chicken Bao

You can get ready-made lotus leaf bao at Asian supermarkets. I always have some handy in my freezer, and when I want to use them, I place them on pieces of parchment paper and steam them in my bamboo steamer.

To make the spicy fried chicken, I cut chicken thighs into small pieces and then coated them in a mixture of beaten egg and soy sauce, and then rolled them in corn starch. After deep frying, I tossed the crispy chicken pieces in this bottled sauce*, tucked them into the steamed bao, and garnished with sesame seeds and sliced scallions.

*This was a client’s product but this recipe was not sponsored.

Avocado and Burrata Toast

I made these celebratory toasts to mark the 2-year anniversary of my Instagram account. I used four-grain sourdough from an awesome little local bakery called Fox and Lion Bread. I topped them with:

• sliced avocado

• gobs of burrata

• pickled carrot ribbons (recipe here)

• curly scallions (slice scallions lengthwise and soak in iced water)

• pea shoots

• everything seasoning

• edible flowers from my backyard garden

Viet-Cajun-Inspired Vermicelli Bowl

Frozen shrimp became a stable in my freezer during lockdown, and I always keep rice vermicelli in my pantry. You can tell that I made this when I was really trying to limit my grocery trips and had run out of fresh garlic, because my nước chấm dressing features a last-resort use of bottled fried garlic that really was not the same. To assemble the rest of the bowl:

• Soak rice vermicelli in boiling water for 5 minutes. Rinse in cold water and drain.

• Pat shrimp dry and toss in cajun spices and a bit of brown sugar. Sear in a cast iron skillet on both sides to get that namesake blackened shrimp look.

• Prep your choice of herbs and greens. All of mine were grown in my garden! I used: mint, red shiso, sorrel, chard, mixed microgreens, and scallions.

• Add other produce odds and ends that you have on hand! I used cucumbers and pickled carrot ribbons (recipe here) because I had them.

Vegan Jackfruit Tacos & Homemade Pink Tortillas

To make corn tortillas from scratch, I simply follow the ratios from the tortilla recipe on the bag of Maseca brand masa harina**. For 8 pink tortillas, I combined 1 cup of white masa harina, 2/3 cup hot water, a pinch of salt, and a little bit of beetroot powder; kneaded it together; and rested under a damp towel for 20 minutes before I divided them evenly into 8 balls. I cut open a gallon-sized ziplock bag to use to prevent the dough from sticking to my tortilla press. This is the cast iron tortilla press I use**; I usually press and then rotate the dough a couple of times to get a nicely rounded, thin tortilla. Then I cook them on a super hot griddle pan.

Canned green jackfruit in brine or water is a common item in Asian supermarkets, but lately it has become so popular as a vegan shredded meat substitute that they even have it at Trader Joe’s. I don’t think it tastes like meat, but it does have a nice texture for tacos and holds on to seasonings well. I squeezed out the liquid, simmered with a mole-inspired sauce, and shredded it up.

Make Your Own Fresh Spring Rolls Night

This was one of my ideas for turning dinner into an interactive experience during lockdown. You can get rice paper sheets in various sizes at Asian supermarkets; I like to get the smaller ones so each roll is just a couple of bites. Serve at the table with a big platter of boiled shrimp, fresh veggies and herbs, and rice vermicelli…or whatever you have lying around that is fresh and easy to roll up! Take turns soaking the rice paper briefly to soften it, roll up your fillings, dip, and eat! I found that my leftovers of homemade Korean ssamjang made for an awesome dipping sauce for fresh rolls, even though that’s obviously not a traditional accompaniment to these Vietnamese-inspired rolls. Get the recipe for my ssamjang here.

Easy Semi-Homemade Donuts

My mom taught me how to make these semi-homemade donuts out of canned biscuit dough when I was a kid; I have no idea where she got this brilliant idea because she did not grow up with access to this type of canned product. But all you do is cut or poke a hole in the middle of each raw biscuit, then deep fry. Just keep the oil temperature a little lower than you would for other deep-fried foods because the dough can burn fast! I love that this dough is more on the savory side than normal donut dough, so it balances well with the glaze.

To make the glaze, I used this recipe by my friend Kristina. Then I slowly took my time decorating with chopped pistachios and edible flowers collected from my backyard garden.

Roasted Root Vegetable Roses on Toast

For Halloween, I made this toast and styled the photo inspired by Miss Havisham from Great Expectations (or maybe the “Helena” music video by My Chemical Romance?). The spread is a mix of miso and black sesame tahini and the roses are thinly sliced roasted beets and sweet potatoes. The original idea and recipe for the roses is by Amiee Twigger, and can be found here—I love how realistic and pretty they turned out! The chard leaves came from my garden.

Malaysian Snack Platter

I was given the opportunity to participate in a sponsored campaign where home chefs shared dishes that celebrated their heritage. Getting to partner with a company that encourages bloggers to stay authentic and share stories from diverse cultures is such a big deal, and felt especially significant this past year. I made this platter where I reimagined Malaysian classics in mini, bite-sized form, inspired by nasi lemak and other memories from my visits to the country where my parents were born. I included:

• acar, or Malaysian-style turmeric pickled vegetables

• mini chicken satay on cocktail picks; recipe for my satay marinade here

• peanut sauce; instructions for how to make it using leftover satay marinade here

• coconut rice balls; you can find my coconut rice recipe here, but omit the butterfly pea tea and mold into bite-sized balls

• sliced onion, green beans, and cucumber

• shrimp chips, red skinned peanuts, and salted egg fish skin

• fried anchovies and sambal ikan bilis

• dragonfruit and rambutan

• boiled 6.5-minute egg

Pumpkin-Shaped Pretzel Buns

In 2020, I overcame my intimidation from yeast-based dough recipes and got really into make pretzels of different shapes and sizes. You can find my recipe for these pumpkin-shaped pretzel buns here.

Thank you so much for supporting my content this past year!
What type of content to you want to see more of in 2021?

Tips for Beginners on How to Style a Food Photography Flat Lay

I wrote a guest post over at nomtasticfoods.net on how to style a flat lay for food photography. Check it out here!