Cook & Capture

My latest venture; the why, the where, the who and the what…

I’ve had a lot of people asking me recently about Cook & Capture, my latest venture so I thought i’d jump on and write a quick blog post about what we do at Cook & Capture, explain how it works and answer the common questions I get about our new bussines.

So…what is this new business, what do we do? Cook & Capture provides styled images of food, ingredients and even drinks, showcasing a clients food product at their absolute yummiest for them to use in their marketing, social media etc. So basically, lets say you produce amazing cheeses, we create gorgeous recipes using your cheese and photograph it to show how wonderful the cheese in question is. It maybe something simple like a burger showing the oozy goodness dripping down over the delicious beef pattie. Or it could be a delicious baby carrot and goats cheese risotto to showcase just how versatile your product is.

OK so now i’ve explained a little more about my new venture; i’m going to answer some questions I get asked a lot about C&C.

You say ‘we’ when you talk about your new business…who are you working with? I started C&C with my wonderful friend and colleague, photographer Clare Buckingham. We both realised, whilst Clare was photographing a new menu of mine, just how much we love styling and shooting food. Clare is an amazing photographer with a real eye for detail and styling. I cook and recipe develop, Clare photographs, and together we style and curate the scene…it works fantastically and we have such a giggle in the process.

You seem very busy with BTAG, where do you find the time? Yikes this is a tricky one and the honest answer is, i’m not sure. It does however work really well. Whilst i’m fully booked all year around with BTAG, most of my work is for the weekends which leaves me with start of the week to work on C&C. The emails, paperwork, social media and all the other things that go with running a business just happen in amongst everything…I make it work and I love it!

Where do you take the photos? It entirely depends on what the clients want. Sometimes we go to the client, perhaps they have a cafe or restaurant and want some awesome shots of their menu. Other times our clients send us their products so we create the dishes and photograph them in our amazing kitchen studio- surrounded by all our gorgeous props – its the ultimate setup.

Is it scary starting another new business? YES!! I was extremely lucky with BTAG that one thing led to another and suddenly I had a business, almost without realising it. Starting a business from practically nothing, totally from scratch has been totally different, very daunting but extremely rewarding and a huge learning curb.

Where did the idea for this business come from? We realised there was a big gap in the market for such a service. On the whole food brands that are in need of good images would have to find; a photographer, a chef, a stylist, some prop hire and probably a studio as well. They’d then have to coordinate these things, find a time that suited all, pay everyone individually and suddenly it becomes hugely complex and often stressful, if not unachievable. We realised that we could provide this complete, all in service by pooling our talents and making the process seamless and straightforward. In many cases we simply get sent the product and we send back an album of beautiful images – it doesn’t get much easier that that!

So there you have it… Hopefully you’ve enjoyed hearing all about the new venture and if you want to check it out further head over to our website .