These billboards and magazine ads are part of a campaign designed by Capital C , shot by photography duo Gibson and Smith, and with food styled by me, Ruth Gangbar. For making this image, I used the actual “Buttery Taste Becel” to mould dozens of heart shaped pats by using a piping bag to form the initial shape, and then froze them on trays. The hearts then needed gentle sculpting with warm fingertips to create the right contours, and then went back in the freezer. Many spuds were sorted, microwaved and split, with additional fluffing of their filling. (My tool of choice for this precision task?…a fork!) We then did some tests of how pats of Buttery Taste Becel looked when placed on warm baked potatoes in order to emulate it, but under more controlled circumstances on the photography set. Perfect lighting takes time….Finally, the still frozen, perfect Buttery Taste Becel heart got placed on a room-temperture spud, before being lightly heated with a butane torch to capture just the right buttery melt at just the right moment.
One thing I lament is to waste food, but the day on set was plenty busy with weighing the concerns of brand managers and the design team (but it was FUN!), without a moment to spare for additional culinary puttering…but I could have made hundreds of
POTATO SCONES
500 g/ 1 lb mashed potato, 30 g/1 oz Buttery Taste Becel(or butter), 1/2 tsp salt, 60 g/2 oz all purpose flour
Add butter and salt to the warm, smoothly mashed potatoes. Sift in the flour very lightly, while mixing with the butter (or use a food processor), handling as little as possible. Sprinkle a work surface with flour, thinly roll out the potato mixture, and cut into triangle shapes. Heat a griddle or thick bottomed frying pan over medium heat, and grease it lightly. Heat the scones for about 3 minutes on each side or until browned.
recipe adapted from Traditional Scottish Cooking by Eleanor Cowan