2009.09.15: Blue Willow Fusion Lunch Menu

It seems as though Blue Willow Restaurant has been taking large but cautious steps to revamp their offering. Beginning with the build up of a concession trailer to offer specialized foods and desserts at outdoor special events to participating in the Rocky Mountain Food and Wine Festival, Blue Willow is now open for lunch with some Asian fusion menu options. Well . . . was open for lunch. After checking up on the restaurant it seems as though a curious staffing issue is temporarily preventing lunch serving but official speculation suggests that the lunch menu may once again be available sometime in March. Keep checking the Blue Willow Restaurant website to see when it does. Until then I hope that you'll be satisfied drooling over the photos. All delivered photos shot with Horseman #3, a Horseman L frame camera now owned by Adam Neufeld. Lens used was the Schneider Symmar-S 210mm F/5.6. Film used was Kodak Ektachrome EPP and instant film was Fuji's ISO 100 9x12 stuff. Film processing by ABC Photocolour in Vancouver. Camera and styling assistance, scanning, colour correction, and retouching by Sarah Chung. Later in the shoot, Ethan decided to join us and helped eat. Kitchen and candid photos were shot with the Contax G2 and 35mm F/2 Zeiss Planar on Fuji Pro Z and processed by McBain Camera's Kingsway location. Some of the candids were taken by Sarah.

It's been a while since I shot these but I'll try my best to describe what's in each photo. This is a chicken breast served on a bed of oriental veggie stir fry with a bit of "Chef Jason's Special Sauce." That's what they told me what I asked them what sauce that was . . . but it was delicious.

Sweet and sour chicken with a combination of stir fried and steamed vegetables and a side of fried rice. In the background you see the then newly-designed lunch menu. Typically I'd try to shoot with lens axis parallel to the table to maintain subject proportions but I was shooting more for something creative than something more explicit. A small amount of front tilt was applied to get the logo on the menu in focus.

Take 1 of the breaded pork cutlet.

Jean felt that the first take of the pork cutlet wasn't descriptive enough and had us shoot from a higher angle. We quickly re-plated, rearranged the table, repositioned some lights and then reshot. While this photo is no longer consistent with the other photos from this shoot I agree that it gives a better representation of the relatively flat pork cutlet and sells the dish better than our original shot.

Beef steak garnished with onions and lettuce with a side of oriental vegetables. Stan surveyed some of their steak eating customers about which sauce should accompany the steak dish. It seemed as though many serious steak eaters wanted to have HP Sauce with their steak so you get a choice of HP Sauce or a gravy.

The hands of Thomas (left, restaurant manager) and Jason the chef preparing dishes while we were set up in the VIP room with camera and lighting ready. While all food photography is challenging, Chinese food tends to be especially challenging because of how much of it is fried and because of how much of the food ends up looking brown and in small pieces. It's tasty but not always photogenic so we shoot as quickly as possible after preparation and certain other provisions have to be made to compensate for the food's unphotogenic nature.