In 1980, food styling wasn’t so much about the food as it
was about composition.
This picture was made at the juncture between the prop-heavy
1970s (following the formula exactly: plated food, raw version of the main
ingredient, cruet set and flowers) and the intense close-up of the 1980s
(hinted at here in the glistening sharpness of the eggplant stuffing and water
bespeckled irises).
This stylist has gone for a purple theme, presumably to
match the eggplant, though the use of a sprig of baby’s breath to echo the
moistness of the dish below it might be merely accidental.
Budget Saving Meals
Cookbook, Donna M. Paananen, 1980
Also from this book: Fear and Loathing in Safeways, Nutty As A Fruitcake
