Make Martha Cringe! (Good food behaving badly)

These days, food photography is all about meticulously capturing a food's natural beauty. I think we could all agree that this current trend is a good one. But it's just so... pretty. Let's rebel, just once a month! Read on.

Here's the gist of this event. Yes, we can make our food look gorgeous, fresh, and vibrant. It's a challenge. It's fun. We love it. We want to make food glow, basking in just the right amount of gorgeous natural light. We want to show just how fresh and green that spinach is (maybe it was just picked- maybe there's a second bunch of greens in the background of the shot with the dirt from the garden still gracing its roots)! We want to show how each grain of organic bhutanese red rice clings delicately to the next. But sometimes it's just a bit much. I don't know about all of you, but every now and then I just get an itch to rebel and make my food look really, really tacky. Maybe it's just me, but with so much "pretty" food around I think it might be pretty satisfying to see some food looking outlandishly kitschy and garish. Hey, it wouldn't be the first time, anyone remember the 70's?

So let's do it. Let's put our skills to good (or bad) use and revive gratuitous food styling, at least for the purpose of this event. Now, let me make this clear... I'm not interested in bad food, or even bad photography. The food should be something that actually tastes good, and the photographic composition should be deliberate. As for the styling, go wild! Bring on the tacky lighting, fussy structuring, inappropriate props and garni, and arranging of food in compromising positions. Let's have fun with it. Let's break all the rules. Let's Make Martha Cringe.

Update: There are no restrictions on this month's ingredients. Use whatever you want!

Here are the rules:

1. Prepare (or create) a recipe, style it as gaudily as you can, and write a post including your cringe-worthy photo and the accompanying recipe. Please link back to this announcement in your post. Posts must be new, although I seriously doubt that you have any old posts that would be appropriate for this event ;)
2. You MAY use photoshop or another editing program to alter the color/lighting of your photo.
3. E-mail me (caitlin DOT larussa AT gmail DOT com) Please make sure that Make Martha Cringe is written in the subject line.
4. In the e-mail please include:
   • the URL of your entry
   • your name, and your blog's name
   • the name of the dish
   • your approximate location
5. The deadline for entries is Sunday, April 20, at midnight (eastern standard time). (I will post a roundup sometime the following week).

The winner (judged this time by me) will receive a mystery prize and will have the privilege of helping me judge the next round.
I can't wait to see some really awful styling. Bring it on!

Link to orginal post on my blog: http://foodnerd.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/event-make-martha-cringe-good-f...