1.7K views Oct 2009
A food stylist reveals how she uses undercooked meat, glued-on sesame seeds, food dye, pins, and toothpicks to make burgers and fries look good on camera.
0:06 Have you ever wondered why the burgers in commercials always look so good? 0:11 We visited a studio where food stylist Jennifer Eustach showed us some of the tricks that can be used in different TV commercials, like how to make even the most ordinary burger look like a hunk. 0:23 I'm a makeup artist for food, and my job is to make food look absolutely mouthwatering when you see it close up on a television commercial. 0:29 Have you ever seen a burger that looks better than anything you've ever seen before? 0:32 Well, this is how we do it. 0:35 Now, even though the burger's only on the screen for a few seconds, he's got to look so big and juicy that he'll be the star of the commercial. 0:42 So we only cook him for 20 seconds on either side, and that way he doesn't shrink. 0:48 Basically, he's still raw. 0:52 Next, I want to give our star some identity, some definition, like he came off the grill in your backyard, so I brand him with my skewer. 1:01 Now for the buns. After I've gone through dozens and dozens of buns, I find one with the perfect shape. 1:08 Then I carefully glue on sesame seeds to give it the perfect finished look. 1:16 We don't want our perfect bun to get soggy, so I take a piece of cardboard, put it on the bottom, it soaks up the grease from the burger and acts as a platform for our star to sit on. 1:27 Looks a little scrawny, so I'm going to perform some minor surgery. 1:30 We're going to make 2 cuts, take out a V of the beef. 1:37 We're going to spread it out on the bun so he fits, and you'll never see it because we're shooting our star from the front. 1:44 Next, we're going to paint our star with food dye to give him that rich, beautiful color that looks good on television. 1:53 And now for the burger's wardrobe. I go through dozens and dozens of heads of lettuce, keep them in ice water to give them that extra crispy look, and then I pin them on the burger using straight pins and toothpicks. 2:06 Our burger's going to need plenty of color and height to make a good impression, and that comes from being well dressed. 2:30 Doesn't he look awesome? He looks much taller than most fast food burgers you can buy. 2:36 And now for his supporting cast. I pick out the tallest, most golden fries from trays and trays of fries that we cook just a little, and then I make an arrangement by putting them in styrofoam with toothpicks. 2:50 And this way I can get them in any shape that I want, and that way my finished arrangement always looks nice and full. 
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