TODAY'S SPECIALS: THE DESIGN OF FOOD PRESENTATION

TODAY'S SPECIALS: THE DESIGN OF FOOD PRESENTATION

Louis XIV knew it. Martha Stewart knows it. Even your grandma in Poughkeepsie knows it. When it comes to culinary culture, looks matter. Keeping this in mind, AIGA/NY’s second annual food-meets-design event, “Today’s Specials,” explores the visuals behind our favorite victuals. Discover why the father of haute cuisine considered pastry to be an offshoot of architecture, how a food stylist and photographer team up to titillate the taste buds, and what high-technology is doing to change the way we experience wine.

HOST

Frank Bruni was named restaurant critic for the New York Times in April 2004. Before that, he was the newspaper’s Rome bureau chief, a White House reporter, the lead correspondent covering George W. Bush’s 2000 Presidential Campaign and a frequent contributor to the Sunday New York Times magazine. He is the author of the Times bestseller Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater and his restaurant-related articles for the Times have appeared in each of the last three editions of Best Food Writing in America. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for his work at the Detroit Free Press. He lives in New York City.

SPEAKERS

Andrew Bradbury is an award-winning sommelier best known for his work as Wine Director at Charlie Palmer’s Aureole Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. While at Aureole, Bradbury also conceived and developed 55 Degrees Wine + Design, a visually stunning wine bar and retail destination that has been praised as the “coolest wine shop in America” by Gourmet magazine. While at Aurole, he also pioneered the concept of the "e-winebook", an interactive wine list. Bradbury has taken this concept even further with his venture, Clo Wine Bar, located in the Time Warner Center in New York. Bradbury has completed his Advanced Certification and is a Master’s Candidate for the Master Sommelier Certificate.

Mitch Feinberg has been shooting luxury still-life images for more than fifteen years, distinguishing himself as one of the world’s leading food, jewelry and accessory photographers. He has built a large and prestigious base of clientele, shooting major campaigns for the fashion houses Louis Vuitton, Bulgari and Yves Saint Laurent, and editorial content for such renowned publications as T: The New York Times Style Magazine, National Geographic and Vogue. He splits his time between New York City and Paris.

Victoria Granof is a food stylist, conceiver of ideas, crafter of food, developer of recipes and author of the book Sweet Sicily: The Story of an Island and Her Pastries. She is perhaps best known for her decade-long collaboration with the late photographer Irving Penn for Vogue, but has also worked with clients like Häagen-Dazs, Absolut and Clinique and contributed to such publications as Harper’s Bazaar, Bon Appetit, New York and the New York Times.

Tacey A. Rosolowski is a literary essayist and critic who specializes in the aesthetics of craft and everyday objects. Her features on craft have appeared in American Craft and Metalsmith magazine and her essays have been published in such literary journals as The Antioch Review and Boulevard. In 2003, Rosolowski was the Renwick Fellow in American Craft at the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery. Earlier this year, a Brown Fellowship from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston supported her ongoing work on everyday aesthetics. She has a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo. “Dessert Time,” an essay on the aesthetics and cultural history of dessert, appeared in Boulevard in summer 2008

Photo: Mitch Feinberg