5 Food Stylists’ Tips to Copy This Thanksgiving

Cooking a turkey is enough—enough!—so we’re here to serve you some barely-any-effort tips to make your plates prettier, your tables artful and your Instagrams inestimably deserving of all the likes.

#pinterestdreams #thanksgiving #tablestyling #tablescape #designingdinner #interiorstyling

A photo posted by Bilel Troudi (@troudibilel) on

@troudibilel

The tip: Pile your plate.

The backstory: Bilel Troudi takes an almost deconstructed approach, layering a dish’s ingredients in assemblage style for something of a customizable approach. It looks especially good with fruit-topped pies, but our favorite way to employ this is the next morning with breakfast carbs. You want to make pumpkin waffles? Make a million, and stack them.

Location: Paris, France

Followers: 56.5k

A photo posted by Judy Kim (@thejudylab) on

@thejudylab

The tip: Dress up your pie.

The backstory: Every Thanksgiving dinner will have one, so here’s a very easy chance to do something impressive: braid and twist leftover dough into a textured pie topping. It’ll bake at the same temperature as the rest of the pie and be terribly nice to look at ’til dessert time. It’s a signature Judy Kim move—the stylist also edits the Weeknight Dinner column for @Delish so she understands easy moves with impact.

Location: New York, NY

Followers: 58.9k

A photo posted by Athena Calderone (@eyeswoon) on

@eyeswoon 

The tip: Choose an optic-white tablecloth.

The backstory: Thank you, expert entertainer Athena Calderone, for always setting us straight. A white tablecloth is a shortcut to achieving maximum color contrast. If you’re out shopping, pick up something cheap—it’ll get destroyed—but those pre-meal tablescape photos will pop. If you have to raid your own linen closet, you can elevate the humble bed sheet by layering two unevenly for that lived-in dishabille.

Locations: New York and the Hamptons, NY

Followers: 77.2k

@spoonforkbacon

The tip: Embrace the mess.

The backstory: Some of the best seasonal recipes are about comfort and ease. Take stuffing—even the name itself implies a pleasantly laid-back disorganized piling. That’s Spoon fork Bacon’s feed is such a breath of fresh air. The stylist/photographer pair’s food feels inviting, not austere.

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Followers: 251k

@claireesparros

The tip: Use produce as decoration.

The backstory: Trust Homepolish designer/tablescaper/interior guru extraordinaire on this. The typical harvest-season palette is dictated by the foods themselves, so instead of hunting down inorganic complimentary decor, use those things themselves: pumpkins, gourds, artichokes, or a wild bunch of cranberry branch or eucalyptus.

Location: New York and Miami

Followers: 2313


More, more, more! Read Last Year’s Thanksgiving List

This time last year, we shared our favorite food photography tips, c/o food stylists from around the world—and since then, seems more than a few followers have caught on. Here’s how their audiences have grown in the last twelve months.

@gatherandfeast (that’s Ashley Alexander’s shot, above): 227k followers, +464.8%

@anettvelsberg: 118k followers, +368.5%

@paulina_kolondra: 59.3k followers, +270.3%

@christellerocks: 7,962 followers, +174.7%

@luisamoron: 10.8k followers, +56.9%

Read their tips here.


THE GET 

the-get-crate-barrel-black-ceramic-plates

Black ceramic plates —the unexpected choice of many design-minded restaurants for their ability to make food pop. (AKA if you do have time to dash out…)