After moving from NY & switching from fashion to food photography- I began by expediting the kitchen at Rubicon @tracidesjardins first restaurant in SF to learn as much as I could about California Cuisine. Although I’ve leaned oodles from many chefs throughout my career Traci was the closest that I had to a real mentor. She taught me how to think about food and wine pairing,appreciate great product, and most importantly how to plate a dish - requisite, indispensable to great food images. Incredibly generous by nature, Traci agreed to food style my first cookbook On Rice by Rick Rodgers / @chroniclebooks - Now, close to 90 books later, I still look back on the serendipity of meeting her and how that positively influenced my career.