annabelle breakey in black and white
Sometimes the difference between a good idea and a great idea is a quick chat with a creative partner. Annabelle Breakey’s promo projects usually involve a partnership with one of her favorite food or prop stylists, and each one has a theme: eggs, rainbows, tea, or gold, for example.
“My husband had suggested the idea of shooting a promo in black and white. On the way home from a big shoot in Chicago, I was chatting with food stylist Abby Stolfo. Together, we came up with the idea of shooting black and white foods—in full color,” recalled Annabelle.
Each issue of her promo “magazine” Plenty features a menu of salads, proteins, appetizers, and desserts along with fun party ideas. The Black + White Issue menu includes a cheese plate with spiced dried fig chutney, fresh pear, soft boiled quail eggs, triple-cream brie, and black sesame crackers. There’s black ramen with wood ear mushrooms, black tea encrusted sea bass and wild rice, sea urchin (the sea urchins were alive when they arrived at the studio!), charred octopus and squid ink linguini, panna cotta with white chocolate, a four-tier chocolate cake with anemones, marbled white and dark chocolate medallions, and a simply divine espresso gin crème with cocoa.
“Abby really brought her A-game. Those recipes were beautiful—and they tasted as good as they looked!” said Annabelle.
The project took five days to shoot, and with props by Alysia Andriola.
“I wanted the piece to be elegant, modern, and with high contrast but still feel natural. I had a vision for how it should look, but it’s always, always made better by my creative partners. I think this is my most favorite promo yet!” said Annabelle.
