I raced around Cengelkoy, wracking my brain for ideas. Well, raced as much as one CAN speed around on this busy, coastal Istanbul road. We were scheduled to shoot the photos for keskek today, a time-intensive village stew, and I needed a faster solution. I didn’t have a village fire to stir a pot of stew over, or endless hands to help me with the task that would lend as much meaning to the dish as the story in Expat Sofra it represents. Keskek is also not a meal on offer just anywhere. Hearty fare much beloved, it is a dish lovingly prepared and savored at home. Still, I thought to try my chance and seek out a local teyze. These denizens of Turkish society might be the subject of many jokes, yet it frankly must be admitted there is little these ladies of a certain age in Turkey cannot solve. My best bet was in finding one, and seeing if she had a keskek connection.

            Walking into the Ev Yemekleri place my family frequents, I said hello to the matronly figure sitting in the corner. She offered tea in a tulip-shaped glass and I patiently sat with her a bit, asking about her family and answering questions about mine. Then I moved onto business, and talking keskek. Her eyes widened, sparkling, and she laughed. “You know keskek?” she asked, incredulously. Proud, perhaps, that this Italian foreigner in her neighborhood, who she assumed might be a culinary snob, was inquiring about a village dish. I nodded hungrily. She pulled out an old phone and made some calls. Within five minutes, she had a batch of keskek found, and a cousin’s son-in-law tasked with bringing it to us within half an hour via moped. Never underestimate the power of a Turkish teyze.

            The steaming, towel-wrapped pot of keskek securely on the seat behind me, I drove over the first bridge spanning the Bosporus, heading to the 4. Levent based Exit Photography and Production Studio of my dear friends Oya Karabal and Tayfun Rapayazdic This husband-wife power duo has an elite space dedicated to the art of food photography. With solid experience in advertising, photographer Tayfun Rapayazdic worked with numerous global brands and in the year 2000 founded Istanbul Exit Photography and Production. Oya Rapayazdic graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University with a degree in Graphic Design. She has worked with major advertising agencies such as BBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Wunderman as senior art director and creative group head before joining Exit as an art director-prop stylist. Prop materials and decorative objects she collects from travels all over the world enhance her work.

Instagram makes food photos look easy. Anyone with a phone camera can do it, right? Of course! But not really. The amount of detail that goes into professional food photography is extraordinary, and the finished product puts all of the selfie food photos to shame. When Oya and Tayfun agreed to shoot the recipe photos for Expat Sofra, I was ecstatic. We did not want anything resembling basic photos, or anything that looked too much like a stock photo. The photos needed to capture the atmosphere and essence of the stories and recipes they would accompany. Before the shoot, I met with Oya and Tayfun, and explained the stories behind each dish. We found items that would make the photo more personal, that would capture the story and not just be another food photo. Every minute detail carefully thought out. For example, contributor Jennifer Yonan sent us a photo of a khoresh recipe hand-written on an index card by her now-deceased aunt, featured in her story. We printed and cut this out, and included it in the shoot as both a memento and a way to bring Jennifer’s family into the photo.

            Once we had the background selected and had mapped out the way we wanted the photos set, I made the food. The emphasis being on beauty rather than taste, hard for my chef-self to reconcile. With tweezers, needles, glue, we placed and attached each item in the shoot, sometimes bean-by-bean, grain of rice by grain of rice, to make everything perfect. Occasionally, our strong, artistic personalities would clash. Whenever food is involved, it turns the scene into a heated kitchen.

            Only after everything had been carefully placed could Tayfun adjust lighting and begin to take the pictures from all angles, using high-end equipment with flawless precision. Due to the amount of detail each photo required, we only were able to shoot three or four dishes a day. Long after the keskek had cooled, we were still trying to get the perfect shot, using several tricks to make it look appetizing and piping hot. My poor teyze at the home food shop would be horrified and I regretted not taking a taste before the shoot in order to give her an honest response when she asked how I liked it the next time I saw her.

            The amazing talent, dedication, and perfectionism of Exit Photography and Production created a feast for the eye within Expat Sofra. The book is proud to feature not only stories and recipes, but also visuals of stunning aesthetic.