In 2017, I shot a promotional package for Eatable Films, a Toronto-based food and film festival. To drum up excitement, awareness and ticket sales in the weeks leading to the event, I photographed the chefs and food celebrities in their kitchens to produce exciting, beautiful social media content. When the festival kicked off movie showings at the Royal Cinema, I took a candid documentary approach to capture the events, films and food leading up to the festival's finale : a movie night followed by dinner at Pizzeria Libretto.

Festival director Rachel Lowe and I hoped that this comprehensive photography package would show off not only the energy and experience of the festival but also highlight the calibre of talent and quality of food that come together to create this "eatable, drinkable, thinkable" experience.

The Lead Up | Chef Features

In the weeks leading to the festival's launch, Rachel and I met with chef Scott Vivian, coffee-master Sam James and chocolatier Brandon Olsen to capture them in their restaurants, kitchens and cafes as they created the menu items they contributed to the festival.

Each chef and barista was paired with a movie for which they would create a food element. Scott Vivian came up with a juicy, decadent meatball for the film, "A Need for Meat." Sam James and Brandon Olsen supplied the coffee and chocolate for the feature, "Coffee and Cigarettes."

Scott Vivian

Sam James

Brandon Olsen

The event unfolds...

The Festival

The Grand Finale...

Big Night

For the grand finale, guests enjoyed a night at Pizzeria Libretto where chef Rocco Agostino re-created the show-stopping menu from the 1996 culinary-cinema classic, Big Night, complete with a timballo (a complex baked pasta dish.)