1,000 Food Art and Styling Ideas: Mouthwatering Food Presentations from Chefs, Photographers, and Bloggers from Around the Globe (1000 Series) Flexibound – December 1, 2013

I bought the book for the head chef at a large hotel-his choice for a Christmas gift. He also said I could buy it used, which I did. The book was brand new-except for the Library label on the front cover. All that aside, it had color pictures of how the food should look when you're finished crafting it. I don't think there's a photo of every item though. He was very happy to receive it and I knew that it was a good purchase because he had looked for books like it & chose this one.

Read the Terrible Reviews! All True. This is appears to be a book of 1000 food photographs with no text. Repeat: No Text. There are photographers' or studio names under the various photographs. From this I infer that the photos are intended to demonstrate a food photographer's ability to do a good food photo and the book is therefore a marketing tool for the photographers. As for the photography, none of it is particularly inspirational. As for the printing, it is generally poor. I will leave it to photographers to judge that. But if you are looking for artistic ways to present food, look elsewhere. I could not possibly describe what is shown in this book as "food art." A picture of a donut on a white plate is not "food art." There is a picture of a steamed lobster on a plate. Also not food art. Two cupcakes with sprinkles over chocolate frosting. Again, not food art. A picture of a scoop of ice cream in a bowl with a mint leaf. Also not food art. Over all so worthless I am actually putting it in the garbage can right now.

First, a little background. I am a home/amateur cook, self-taught. I enjoy entertaining and preparing meals for my guests and, in particular, I aim to create restaurant-caliber food. I have found some books that have helped me come a long way in my cooking skills, but my ongoing challenge is plating. I haven't found any particularly useful book for inspiring me or giving me guidance when it comes to plating. With that in mind, I pre-ordered this book as soon as I saw it, hoping it would finally be "the one" to take my plating skills to the next level. When it came, I knew I had to share my experiences to hopefully help others.This book has exactly (as the title describes) 1,000 photos of various food plates (well not all food -- maybe 100-150 of them are beverages). Outside of the intro and the chapter titles (the chapters include Color, Global, All Natural, and Heat), plus the location of the photo and name of the photographer, there is basically no text. That means no how-tos, tips for plating, or anything else like that. It is literally and precisely a picture book.Since the entire book is about its pictures, the real question, then, is how good are the pictures? Frankly, there is a wide range -- some are very simple, clearly more about the photography itself than about the food (for example, a full page photo of a bar with Miller Light bottles, empty shot glasses, and a Miller Light bucket is more than underwhelming). Fortunately, those photos only seem to comprise maybe 30-50 of the 1,000 photos. There are a similar number of photos showing beverages that are nice, but not helpful to me since they are not of food. Next, there are the home cook types of photos -- showing relatively unsophisticated platings of food, which are more than half of the remaining photos. The platings of these dishes range from quite nice to something that I think most cooks could easily replicate at home. The remaining photos look more like higher-end restaurant dishes -- and these are the ones I find most valuable. Again, don't expect technique, but if you are looking for inspiration on how to prepare a dish so that you can model yours after the picture, I think you'll find them quite useful.I understand that my objectives may differ from others -- indeed, if you're looking for a coffee table book with great food and drink photos, you'll find this to be spot on. If you're looking for something for inspiration on plating -- I think you can extract quite a bit of value out of this book as well, but you will have to look elsewhere if you want tips or techniques to go with the photos.

Not quite what I was expecting. No descriptions inside. This is quite literally just a book of photos. A lot of them are good photos, but I was hoping for descriptions of dishes, listings of components and so on.

It's a good book if you are looking for ideas and to enhance your creative side when it comes to plating your dishes.

I just received this book for which I waited months. I am an avid food photographer and amateur cook. I get more excitement and enjoyment viewing monthly food magazines than from this book. I am not at all inspired. There are a few creative shots that obviously took some thought to design and shoot; however, most shots are dull, poorly lit and (un)styled. I agree with the other reviewer, that some text (even a brief description of the dish) would add some context.Many photos are reminiscent of '70s-style colour and technique, particularly the drinks section. Regretful purchase, and will not find a place on my shelf among other finer cook, photography and styling books.

Great book. Great service

This book is garbage. Of course this is a subjective opinion as everyone has their own styles, but even for just gathering inspiration, this book lacks evocative imagery. The plating in the photos looks outdated, corny, or unappealingly filtered and the photos are sourced from a very small pool of sources, which is partly why I disliked it so much. If you're interested in plating food like you're trying to make your dishes unappetizing or boring, then maybe this book could be useful to you. If I try to be objective, I'll say that the design company for the book, Grip x Chicago, did a pretty appealing job and the images are nicely mapped out. Also, if you're into nouvelle cuisine plating, there are some really good ideas of "what not to do" provided.

belas fotos , inspirador

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

While the photos in the book are nice, absolutely no information is provided about what's in them. No description of the food, the components, nothing at all. For me this turns it from an informative book to a book that's just pretty to look at.

Would have loved the book to have more written details not just pictures

Nice pictures and absolutely nothing more. Highly disappointed, do not recommend.