Food Stylist: A Day In The Life

Amy Stephenson recently changed career from fashion buying to become a freelance food stylist and recipe tester, cooking and styling food for photographs in newspapers and magazines. You can see her work on her website https://amystephenson.co.uk/ instagram @amystephensoneats and twitter @amystevo_eats

On a shoot day I’m normally up nice and early as often photographers use natural light so we always need to make the most of the morning. Breakfast can vary widely from a homemade healthy green smoothie to a buttery croissant -everything in moderation and all that. If breakfast is provided in the studio I won’t say no. I try to make sure I fill myself up in the morning as you never know when you might eat properly again in the day. I use public transport to get around so it’s a quick walk to one of the three stations or a bus stop near my house and a usual start time of around 8-8.30am.

Until about a month ago I was in my eighth year working in the fashion buying industry. I’d known for a while it wasn’t what I wanted to do forever and food has always been my big passion so last year I started to do something about it. I signed up to a food styling course and started hounding anyone and everyone whose contact details I could get hold of that worked in the food industry. I think I was lucky to discover that a very high proportion of my friends knew someone who knew someone that had some kind of link to food styling. I was also very lucky to have an extremely understanding and lovely boss who let me book days off work at very short notice to do food styling work.

I ended up being offered work and having to turn it down due to day job-related commitments so at the beginning of this year, having saved up a bit of cash, I decided to bite the bullet and hand my notice in.

I never thought I would be the kind of person to change their career in their 30s but here I am. And I would definitely recommend it. It’s still early days but I think I already know this is what I want to do from here on. The one piece advice I was given that has always stuck is ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ which really does apply here – I quite often have to cook things I’ve never done before and panic slightly but you just have to go for it and hope for the best!

My favourite thing about the new job is that no two days are the same. You’re never going to cook the same meal twice. The next best thing is that I’m surrounded by people who agree that it’s ok to talk about food a large proportion of the time. Oh, and not forgetting all the free food. (My cupboards are actually bursting at the seams)

Lunch can also vary greatly – occasionally studios order lunch in which might be something like a grilled chicken salad, but more often than not it’s more of a grazing affair. We, of course, try most of the food that we’re cooking so a lot of the day’s eating is mouthfuls here and there. You get used to having a mouthful of steak quickly followed by a spoonful of dessert then some moussaka. I haven’t decided yet whether it’s a good diet. Watch this space.

Shoots usually finish around 5pm, depending on how much clearing up needs doing and in the evening I either play netball or collapse on the sofa in front of the TV. I always take some kind of receptacle with me to shoots so I can swipe leftovers and feed my boyfriend dinner without having to cook again. Or I’ll make us something like a frittata using the ingredients I’ve brought home. If I’ve got the energy I might try and recreate something I’ve seen on a shoot or in a magazine. Obviously a love of cooking is part of the job but sometimes you just can’t face it if you’ve been on your feet all day and the smell of everything you’ve cooked already is clinging to your entire body. I do more feast cooking at the weekends now, when there are no time constraints.

I am a big Instagram fan and get a lot of inspiration from there – my favourite follows are Green Kitchen Stories, David Loftus and Dumpling Shack.