How do you convey "It looks delicious!"? ── What I've learned after 10 years of thinking about "sizzle"

Hello, I'm Toda!
In 2017, I changed jobs to a company that operates a food subscription service called Oisix, where I work as an in-house art director.

As I wrote in this note in the past, Oisix designers think every day about things like,
How can we express things so that "It looks delicious!" is conveyed?
What is "It looks delicious!" in the first place?
.

I myself have always had more interest in food than the average person, even before I joined Oisix. At some point, I started making curry from spices, and since last year, I've started making pizza from scratch. If I continue to age at this rate, I'll probably start making soba noodles too.

I basically eat everything except ginkgo nuts and tokoroten (on the contrary, I wouldn't eat those two even if you paid me a million yen!), and I'm such a sweet tooth that I think I'd want Eggs'n Things' whipped cream-filled pancakes for my last meal!

Before I knew it, my love for food grew to the point where I became a person who thinks about "What does 'looks delicious' mean?" day and night, and since I've become completely confused, I'd like to talk about what I've been thinking regarding "What does 'looks delicious' mean?" as a way to organize my thoughts.

What is "sizzle" in the first place?

At Oisix, a company that deals with food, the word "sizzle" is frequently used not only by designers but also by planners.

When I looked into this word, it seems it originally meant the sound of frying or meat cooking, and from there, it evolved to mean a technique that stimulates the consumer's senses to evoke an appetite or desire to purchase.

I interpret this sizzle as,

the uniqueness and charm of that product that makes you feel it beyond logic

and perceive it as such.

Therefore, I believe that not just food, but everything has its own unique sizzle.For example, the shine of the highlight on a car's front fender is, I think, one of the car's sizzles.

Things I am conscious of when taking photos that convey "It looks delicious!"

A major part of an Oisix designer's job is directing food photography. At that time, I am always conscious of how I can bring out the sizzle—the uniqueness and charm of that product.

However, what I am equally or even more conscious of is how to resolve the "bottlenecks" that customers feel when they think about buying that product..

The bottleneck here refers to the reasons that make you hesitate to buy when you become interested in a product and think, "Maybe I'll try buying it." (if I were to align it with marketing terminology, I view it as a concept close to "closing").

Since the final goal of my photography direction work is for customers to feel the product looks delicious, purchase it, and eat it, I also strive to resolve bottlenecks if it can be solved through photographic expression.

For example, the above is a product photo of frozen clams from Ise Bay. At first, I was promoting it only with photos that had sizzle and looked delicious, but
・I don't really know how to cook them
・It seems troublesome because you have to remove the sand
There were bottlenecks like these, and sales were not growing as expected.

So, in order to convey that it can be easily used for cooking just by taking it out of the bag, I took the photo above, and sales increased sevenfold.

There are many cases where sales have increased several times over by conveying the resolution of such bottlenecks to customers through photos and the like.

Things I research every day to master "It looks delicious!"

So, what kind of input do I accumulate daily to pursue photos that look delicious? I observe as many delicious-looking photos and videos in the world as I can. I look at various media such as magazines, television, and movies.

Among them, what I often use as a reference is "inserts", which are food introduction videos. Like the video of noodles being lifted with chopsticks that is inserted when introducing a ramen shop. Inserts are videos that capture the moment when the dish looks most delicious, so they are very helpful.

There are also many scenes in video works such as movies where you can't help but groan, "It looks delicious!" A famous example would be the precision of the food-related depictions in Ghibli works.

My personal favorite movie is the cafe scene in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds".

There is a scene where they eat a traditional Austrian pastry called "Apfelstrudel," and the texture and sound when the cream is dropped onto the plate, the crispy feeling when cutting the pie crust, the depiction of mixing the two elements of pie and cream and carrying them to the mouth, etc., I think it's a scene packed with expressions of "It looks delicious!" that tickle both sight and hearing. (Actually, it's quite a serious scene, though...)

The top 3 gems of "It looks delicious!" photos selected from 10 years of shooting

In the 10-plus years I've worked at Oisix, I have directed the photography for over 1,000 food items. From those, I have chosen three photos that I personally feel were captured in a way that looks incredibly delicious, based entirely on my own judgment and bias.

3rd Place: Ramen Special Feature

As the name suggests, this is a photo for the hero image of a special feature page dedicated to promoting ramen.
The parts I personally find most impressive are the balance of the oil film floating on the soup and the exquisite way the butter is melting.

The biggest challenge for this shoot was,how to show all three types of ramen—soy sauce, miso, and salt—in a piping hot, delicious-looking state?That was the question.

In food photography, there are several products that are a race against time, as they only stay in a delicious-looking state for a fleeting moment. Ice cream, which starts melting the moment you begin shooting, is a prime example. Ramen is similar; from the moment the soup is poured over the noodles, they begin to get soggy in the blink of an eye.

If I had shot the three types of ramen individually and composed the visual in a three-split screen, this problem might have been easily solved. However, I really wanted to bring out the sense of sizzle and liveliness that comes from having all three ramen bowls coexist in the same space.

The idea I came up with was,to shoot the ramen from a top-down angle against a black background and composite them into a single image later.By doing this, I was able to create a visual that felt lively, as if all the ramen were freshly made and placed in the same space.

2nd Place: Kobe Beef Yakiniku Set

This is a yakiniku set priced at nearly 10,000 yen, developed for the demand for year-end and New Year's feasts.
The biggest challenge for this shoot was,how to create a sense of realism as if it were truly being grilled over charcoal without using fire?That was the question.

Our company has its own in-house studio and employs staff photographers, but since we are renting a room in an office building, open flames are strictly prohibited in the studio.

Given these constraints, the first thing I did was,go to an actual yakiniku restaurant and observe meat being grilled over charcoal.I made various discoveries, such as how smoke and flames rise when dripping meat juices hit the charcoal.

Based on what I learned from this observation, I approached the shoot and directed the way the meat was browned and how the flames (the flames are composited) and smoke rose so that it would never look fake.

By the way, the photographer also used a super technique ofhiding a light that flashes in sync with the camera shutter under the charcoal grill to make it look like the charcoal is truly burning.This was also utilized.

1st Place: Strawberry Fair

This is a photo for the hero image of a special feature page that handles brand strawberries like Amarin and Beni Hoppe, as well as processed products and sweets using strawberries.
To express the inherent freshness of the strawberries directly, I created an image where juicy strawberries seem to be dancing in mid-air.

The reason I chose this example for 1st place is thatthis visual is a single shot packed with the wisdom and ingenuity of the designer, photographer, and stylist.is.

This photo looks like moist strawberries are dancing in the air along with water droplets, but in reality, each strawberry was skewered and shot at various angles.
At this time,to ensure the strawberries had nice-looking water droplets, we thickened the water and applied it to each strawberry one drop at a time with a dropper,which was a gift of the stylist's ideas and technique.

Next, regarding the water dancing in the air,it was actually colored with just a tiny bit of India ink.By doing this, the water droplets become clearly visible even against the pink background paper, and this was the photographer's idea.

By adding the designer's compositing ideas and techniques to that, we were able to create a visual that made the most of the sizzle that can only be brought out through live-action photography.

Cherish the experience of being moved by the thought, "That looks delicious!"

"What is 'delicious-looking'?"
"What is 'sizzle'?"

The conclusion I reached after facing this question for over 10 years is that“sizzle is the essence and appeal of something that makes you feel it beyond logic.”Oisix designers go through trial and error every day to express that kind of appeal in their photography.

In short, this meansthoroughly thinking about and expressing emotional things—which transcend logic—in a logical way,so it is incredibly difficult and incredibly profound.

Sometimes, designers in the company ask me,
“How can I learn to take delicious-looking photos?”

My answer is thatit is important to think deeply about 'what is it that shakes my heart so much?' when you encounter delicious-looking food that appeals to your five senses just by looking at it.is important.

The ramen, yakiniku, and strawberries I introduced in the top 3 are all my favorite foods. If they were placed in front of me, I wouldn't be able to stop drooling and would want to dig in immediately, but it is also important to observe them calmly and from a bird's-eye view, asking, 'Why does this look so delicious?'
What is the state of the oil film on the soup of piping hot ramen right after it is served? How does it change as time passes and it cools down? Observations like that are what count.

I have been working in food photography direction for over 10 years now, and I still haven't gotten bored of it at all. In fact, it gets more fun every year.This is because pursuing the sizzle of food is training in discerning the essence of things.I believe that if you acquire this ability to discern the essence, it can be applied to any job.

I will continue to struggle and enjoy myself as I keep going through trial and error!!