Opening Day at TAO Downtown with Ralph Scamardella

Sometimes you can’t choose your spot to shoot. At Tao Downtown amongst the chaos of opening day I had to shoot 150 dishes. There were at least 50 people working the stations and countless wait staff and bussers running in every direction. The waiters would put the plates down for me to shoot before they carried them out to the guests.

There wasn’t enough room for me to use my favorite lens or time to think about how to shoot a particular dish. I was lucky. For the most part everything looked good enough to eat. I also had to shoot some dishes in the restaurant. We did that an hour before opening. 28 dishes in different locations in an hour and a half.  Gulp!  BUT……the food looked great, was delicious, everyone was really helpful (even though I was always in their way) and you couldn’t ask for a better chef to work with than Ralph Scamardella.