MANILA, Philippines ? A day after her successful food-styling seminar at Sofitel Philippine Plaza, Delores Custer was off to attend a cooking class in Bangkok, courtesy of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The Q&A in the seminar was brief, and there were about 500-plus participants who all wanted more tips from Custer.

We caught Custer right before she left for Bangkok, for this Q&A:

Were you expecting the huge crowd?

No. My first two visits were kind of small. Now, it has grown.

Why do you think the interest in food styling has gotten this big?

Because of Norma [Chikiamco] and Inquirer. We wanted to tap a broader audience, not just people who wanted to be food stylists but also those who owned restaurants or planned to do cookbooks, for instance. I tried to be fairly general in my talk. But I also tried to be more specific in the afternoon, especially on what kind of food pictures work.

You said go natural and use real food, later you showed how to fake food stuff. A few found that a contradiction.

I don?t think it was a contradiction. Even when I showed them how to style a pizza, I prepared and used natural pizza. With the fake ice cream, milk and iced tea, I use them as stand-in before shooting the real thing. They need to know how to make fake stuff so that when it?s time to shoot the real thing, everything is all ready and you don?t have a whole big puddle of ice cream all over the place.

I haven?t run across an advertiser of turkey or chicken who want to advertise their product with wrinkled skin or spotted skin. They still want to have that perfect look. But, if I?m shooting a chicken for a magazine like Bon Appetit, they want it natural or real. We must know how to work in both worlds.

A lot of people asked you how to present beef stew beautifully. Why the focus on it?
I always get that question in my seminar here. Maybe because it?s something that?s very hard to make nice-looking?very dark and brown. In the US, we don?t show pictures of that very often because it?s not one of our national dishes, unlike here.

What?s your take on digital photos or Photoshop? How are you affected by it?

In quite a few ways, most of them positive. I was looking at some photos of Norma?s cookbooks yesterday and most of them were really beautiful. She said they used film, not digital. That really makes the difference.

I don?t think there?s quite as much depth in digital as in film. But digital photos can be easily corrected. If we are shooting a cheesecake and a drizzle of sauce goes too far, they can take a picture of it and bring it back up again. Before, we?d have another cheesecake ready or we?d have to clean up the sauce and re-do. Digital has made it easier for us. The food is fresher and I think we just have more fun. It makes our life easier.

One thing we must be concerned about, though, is ethics.

An art director or a photographer will ask, can we make the food a little bigger or add chips to the cookie, but if it isn?t sold that way that?s an ethical issue. Companies have been sued for over-promising. We must be responsible for what we show and what we promise.

Is there such a thing as badly styled food?

Yes. I have a couple of things I call ?grill mark hall of shame,? where I?ve seen some really ugly grill marks and it was just somebody who didn?t do a good job or didn?t know how to do it. It looks like it?s very easy to do?heat a skewer and put it down on the meat. But you must have the right touch. You must make it look natural and real. I also have a ?turkey hall of shame.? I once saw a turkey ad with a sliced piece of meat taken off the breast, tilted down and then topped with two more slices.

You could almost see where it was added and taken off. It wasn?t for real. The skin was pulled back from the knuckles and looked very bad.

Also, new food stylists always make a mistake with paella. Every pea is carefully placed on top. You can see it looks so arranged, not tossed. They don?t make it look natural. If you toss peas and rice together, you?ll have rice on top of the peas in some places; that looks more real.

Another thing, if a chef is styling food for home consumers, sometimes he or she has trouble making the product look like for home consumers. The chef can?t let go of his or her chef-ness!

Can a chef be a good food stylist?

Yes. They just must know when the food needs to look like a chef did it, and when it needs to look like a person at home did it.

But you don?t have to be chef to be a food stylist?

No, but you must know how to cook and bake really, really well! In the book I?m writing now (?Food Styling: The Art of Preparing Food for the Camera?) I put down about at least 10 important attributes to be a good food stylist. People keep asking me what makes a good food stylist. The first thing I list is, he/she should be a good cook and a baker. A lot of people don?t want to put in time to learn those skills. That?s wrong.
Another thing is, don?t rush. Don?t be too anxious to get a career and make money. In our business, if you do not do well in the job they won?t hire you again. Also, your photographers must enjoy working with you. You must work as a team. You must be a good team player.

One question from the audience I didn?t get to answer was, what happens when you don?t agree with the art director or photographer? I would say it depends on what it is we don?t agree on. If the world is not going to stop and this is the art director?s job, I say okay. Maybe I don?t like the style, but it?s not a life-and-death situation. It?s just a picture.