#chef michael hackman

It’s got all the elements for beautiful food photography: Captivating light, artfully prepared dishes, gorgeous guests and the most lovely farm. It’s a farm that I feel at home on – a farm where my cowboy boots are proper footwear and where the fields remind me gently of home, comforting me when I didn’t know that I was homesick.

  Swank Farm philosophy

The Swank’s pull together the best of our community – the most creative (and fun!) chefs and amazing beverage producers – not just sommeliers and brewers but coffee and tea, kombucha and mixologists. My friend Halle from Flower and Fringe puts together stunning displays for the tables and the barn looks like it’s out of a magazine every single night. It’s truly amazing and I’m so grateful every time I attend to not only be at the event but that the Swank’s put on these dinner’s at all. I’m sure it’s exhausting. But we are SO lucky to have these dinners in our community.

  And the Oscar goes to…Libby the food photographer!

Jodi asked if I would play the roll of “paparazzi” for her Academy Awards dinner. I was delighted and of course I agreed! Along with Ian from Two Fish Creative and Frankie from Coco Prop Shop, we lined the Red Carpet and snapped away, good-naturedly throwing an occasional elbow, calling out to the guests “who are you wearing tonight!” and jockeying for the best picture. Behavior that none of us would exhibit in real life of course but that we had a blast playing for the show. The guests loved it as well.

  After our red carpet debut ended, we got to stay and enjoy the dinner. It was even sweeter for me as my dear friend Samantha was in town and got to experience the dinner with me.

Of course, I couldn’t resist snapping a few pictures – particularly of the gorgeous hors d’oeurves.

  Now, let’s talk about Swank Farm’s food

Dinner was prepared by a group of rock star chefs including Chef Michael Hackman of Aioli – one of our absolute favorite restaurants. Located just around the corner from our house, we love them SO much. He made Seminole Beef Cheeks with Celery Bacon Bread Pudding and a root vegetable sorta. Chef Nick Martinkovic from Jereve at Emko prepared Smoke Sable with coal roasted cabbage, aged beets in melted bone marrow and wild rice bineshi. Chef Josh Thomsen from Eau Palm Beach prepared Elysian Fields Lamb, Swank Farm beans, eggplant caponata and salsa verde. Finally, for dessert Eau’s Pastry Chef Robert Bellini created tiny little choclate Oscars in a gold luster with a red raspberry ganache. Delicious. And gorgeous. And we were SO full.

The next Swank event will be held March 6 from 4-8 but it is sold out. For more information on future events, check out their web site at http://www.swankspecialtyproduce.com

And find Jodi at the Greenmarket in West Palm Beach on Saturday mornings.

Happy Day-After-Thanksgiving!

I hope you had a splendorous Thanksgiving – filled with joy and friends and family and obviously great food! But now…what do you do with the leftovers? We usually just do a whole bunch of turkey sammys and they’re not the most creative you can find. So this year, for a story in the Palm Beach Post, we turned to my favorite local sandwich shop, Aioli and partnered with them for an amazing story and spread. And by spread – do I ever mean spread in both senses of the word.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

First, a few words about Aioil.

Chef Michael Hackman has a resume that includes cooking in kitchens at The Breakers, the Four Seasons and Café L’Europe. From there, he and his beautiful, charming wife Melanie opened Aioli earlier this year. Located on Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach, they create breakfast and lunch for the locals using local ingredients and a fresh, healthy approach. I’ve been buying fresh green juices, their delicious chicken salad and breakfast sandwiches since they opened. It’s nice to eat where everyone knows your name – even nicer with food that tastes like manna.

For this photo shoot, Janderyn Makris of Earth and Sugar once again lent her styling skills to give it that special touch. We wanted a dark and moody look (and not just because I always want dark and moody either!) After talking through the shoot, feel, and props we’d be using, the black wooden background was the perfect feel.

Chef Mike outdid himself with this challenge. Quiche, pot pie, cranberry aioli that paired so perfectly with the turkey breast. Each item more beautiful than the next and I can vouch for how wonderful they tasted too.

Here’s the beautiful spread that we did. Happy cooking dear friends.