Rice Pudding, Raspberry, and Speculaas
First layer is the rice pudding layer. Simple ingredients (milk, cream and sugar. Well, rice of course). But it takes quite a while to get the rice softened and cooled. I’m not sure where I went wrong but the pudding becomes really sticky – kind of a glue sticky. Which is alright, I found it easier to “control” when I need to put them in the verrine glass. Again, you really need to wait until the pudding is cooled otherwise the verrine glass turn really foggy. Now, even though I said it’s easier to control, since the glass opening is so small, the puddings are sticking everywhere on the inside of the glass. Here WINDEX proofs to be my friend in need (apart from rendering the food inedible). I also found that I need to use chopstick to “press” the pudding against the inner glass surface to avoid any air bubble appearing from outside.
Second layer is the raspberry. In the recipe the raspberry is semi-crushed and jelly-fied (new word?). Same challange here when stuffing the raspberry layer, you just need to keep cleaning the glass inner surface after each layer. Also, I found that maintaining a clear separation between the rice pudding layer and the raspberry layer quite hard. Lucky the rice pudding is quite sticky so the jelly doesn’t “sink” into it. Again I need to “press” the jelly to the inner glass wall otherwise air bubbles will be visible from outside.
Top part is easy. Crushed speculaas carefully poured on top. Again, the crumble will sit better if the raspberry layer is set pretty firm, otherwise it will “sink” into it. With the crumble, make sure that when pouring it falls straight onto the jelly and not on the glass. It’s really hard to clean the crumbles that sticks on the glass wall because if you move/tilt the glass the main crumble layer will collapse.
I finished off with a couple of pieces of fresh raspberry. I moist them a bit so they can appear shinny on the surface.
Shooting
I did try several setup. In fact, I did try to shot above in high key, but I like the dark version more. It gives a “dinner” mood. The high key one give a sense of “morning” or “breakfast”, and I don’t think this dessert is suitable at 10am.
This time I put the softbox on the 9 o’clock direction with big mirror on the 4-5 o’clock direction. I also choose the black surface to contrast the white-ish rice pudding and the white saucer plate.
Note that since the verrine glass is stemless and therefore less “curvy” at the bottom, the reflection is not too bad. It still reflects some light from the surrounding, but not to the extend it’s distracting the visibility of the layers. In fact, you’ll probably want some reflection otherwise it will look rather unnatural.
Camera setting is at f4.5 1/20 ISO100 at 100mm. The camera position is elevated a bit – approx 15-20cm above the surface of the subject. I’ve included a snapshot of the setup.
Lighting Setup
The tripod on the left is where the camera position was (there is no camera there because I need to camera to shoot this setup). Also you can’t see the reflector because I actually hand held the reflector when I shoot so obviously I have to put the reflector down when I shoot this setup 
Observation
You can see on the background I placed a porcelain milk container as a prop. Now that milk container get reflected (refracted?) onto the bottom of the glass. You can see the inverted image of the milk containter there. I don’t mind it there, but it got me thinking, what should I do if I’m in the situation where I need to get rid of it? The light must have been reflected off the milk container surface, travelled through the bottom layer of the glass, and onto the camera lens – the bottom part of the glass effectively act as a big fat lens itself. Maybe I can put some kind of flag or gobo in between the milk container and the back of the verrine glass to block the light. That might work as long as the flag/gobo doesn’t interfere with the shot (ie not in the frame). Any other ideas?
Also for any of you who has the Verrines book by Jose Morechal, you’ll find that the one in the book is quite different from the one I posted here. The one in the book has the raspberry layer interlacing with the rice pudding layer creating quite a nice pattern. Any idea how to do this? I did try it but as you can guess, I failed miserably. Maybe the jelly is too firm I don’t know. But if anybody can throw some light that would be great! Being a food stylist is not an easy job at all.
Couda
As suggested, this is the high-key “morning” version that I mentioned before. My preference is the low key one. See if you like this one better.
Inspiring and beautiful… about the refraction, I think photoshop can be your friend with that. Not everything has to be done in camera, you know? I really like to read about every step of your work and about both your failures and wins.
Can we see the high key “morning” version as well?
Maybe, moving forward, you could add some quick snapshots of the preparation as well?
Thanks Franscesco, yes you’re right. Sometimes when you’re so into setting up the lighting it’s hard to step back and accept that you can’t everything perfect. Anyway, yes, I’ll post the “morning” version too and see which one you prefer. Also, great suggestion about quick snapshots of the food preparation. I’ll try to incorporate that in the next one.
Yep, the “night” version is better, the glass is better defined… Very good choice. I look forward to your next “verrine”
Dear Brother in law..
Am impressed!
nice photo! Have just bought a pocket camera.. Lumix LX3.. I think this is complicated eough for me
Keep it up..
vera
thanks for visiting
it’s amazing how much thought people put when they’re shooting food. Anyway, good luck with your Lumix, let me know how it goes and post some photos of it.
Hi there. I’m not sure if I’m even allowed to make a comment on your website (I’m not in the indusrty, I just love your photos, and have a weird obsession with verrines lately)……Anyway….I was just thinking about how hard it is to get food into the glass without touching the sides you don’t want touched…Maybe you could modify a funnel of some sort. For example, saw off the finer end of the funnel to widen the opening a fair bit, but at least you could have an object which allows (in most situations) the food to make it further down into the glass before spreadsing? Just a thought. Love your work!!!!
Hi Tina, thank you verymuch for sparing your time visiting my blog, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I’m writing it. Of course you’re allowed to comment, this blog is open to any suggestions. Sometimes great ideas comes from completely unexpected source!
And you’re right, making sure that the part of the glass that you want to be clean is clean, is very hard (for me anyway). Suddenly I feel that my hand is as big as elephant. Your idea is great though, I’ll try to make some sort of funnel (with small enough opening) for liquid stuff. For a more viscous stuff I usually use chopstick. Again this is not foolproof, that’s why I almost always use Windex to wipe off the glass clean afterward (and render the food inedible).
And not only the inside, the outside of the glass is important too, especially when you’re trying to compose the frame. I tend to move the glass a lot, instead of the camera, because the setting of the camera is already locked of and it’s much easier to move the glass and other props. But then I could get fingerprints on the surface. Again I usuallu Windex it once I’m close to my final composition then move the glass using other utensil such as chopstick etc.
Anyway great to share the experience with you, come back often if you have time to spare!
hi! you have a very interesting project here, not to mention totally awesome food photography!
have you tried using a pastry bag to pipe things into the glasses? it would give you a little more control over viscous materials like mousse for example or you could try contructing a simple disposable funnel made out of baking paper!
Hi Cathy thanks for you kind comments. Yes I have tries using a funnel and it actually works pretty well, I just need to make the funnel small enough so it can be controlled well into the small verrine. Thanks for stopping by!
Hello,
I am totaly impressed by your food and photographie,My name is Franck Pontais ,I am the author of the book “Terrine and Verrine” self published and distribute in England in september 2008. My website is http://www.franckpontais.co.uk. I am very please to find someone with the same passion then me.Please have a look at the website you may find some inspiration and do keep in touch,I would help you as much as I can
Hi Frank, thanks for for your time to stop by, I glad that there are people out there with the same interest. I will have a look at your website when I get back from overseas!