The Creative Cooking Crew is back again with an very interesting challenge for June. The theme is 1 Color for the plate. And here was my thought process:
Great concept! What color should I pick? What color should I not pick to avoid duplicate choices as much as possible? D*?% it I am stuck. I have to do something totally out there. Google, help me?
And I knew I had found an instant winner when I landed on an article about food that glows under a black light. OK so I am bending the rules a bit because technically it’s not a color…but it’s a luminescent ultraviolet meal resulting in one color on my plate!
In reality ultraviolet is an electromagnetic radiation. Physically speaking, the waves of this radiation are like visible light…except that they are invisible to the human eye. What you can see is the reflection of this invisible light which so happens to be in the spectrum of what we see as violets.
Kitchen Table Scraps did a whole series of posts on food color studies which are really worth checking out. Her last post is about ultraviolet foods and I pretty much stuck to the Luminous Watermelon Salad, only changing a few presentation elements to make it a complete lunch.
So how do you light a dish for an ultraviolet shoot? Just get yourself a black light tube (not the bulbs) at the hardware store for your photo shoot . And you have to pick foods that react to black light too. I used the three most common ones:
Your number one choice here is tonic water. The quinine, a natural white crystalline alkaloid, found in tonic water is very sensitive to ultraviolet light and will glow intensely. Below you can see a simple tumbler of plain tonic water. Notice the sprinkling of coarse salt around the glass that glows a dark purple.
For my dish I made a granita from tonic water and a bit of lemon juice. Every 30 min or so I broke up the ice with a fork to get the granita texture. My next choice is white ingredients. A sliced hard boiled egg is a great choice, as well as a little sprinkling of flaked coconut, for a medium strength glow.
And my final component is food with a high water concentration because UV light bounces of a water surface quite well. A stacked salad of cubed watermelon and cucumber round of the lunch plate, offering a dark purple hue.
Here above is a shot in normal light, minus the granita. That stuff melts so fast.
And the photo below is the same shot lit by only a black light, with the granita added this time. How cool is that? Please note the photos were cleaned up with a software but I did not enhance the glow, it is natural.
Thank you Lazaro Cooks and Foodalogue for this month’s fun challenge. Check out what the other members have created on our Pinterest board by clicking on the banner below.
You are one of the most creative and talented food bloggers I know, Evelyne! Truly impressive!!!
This is so original! I love that you really researched the kinds of foods that react differently to black light and included some variety for different looks. Really cool dish 🙂
I’ve only seen black light posters but not black light food! Interesting concept.
Evelyne – this is my favorite, hands down! I have been cooking monochromatic dishes for years, but never ever thought of this. Brilliant! I can imagine a dinner party where I turn off the lights and light the black light for one course. Maybe the amuse bouche, what a way to start a party! I am stealing your concept. I hope you don’t mind 🙂 Highest form of flattery…
LL
This is so incredibly cool. I did something with infra-red years ago (with a film camera) after getting inspired by infra-red photos of Angkor Wat by John McDermott. I thought they were magical. Heat is what brings light to the film so the hotter the object, the lighter on the image. Ferns were like flames!
Your choice for the challenge was so inspired, my hat goes off to you for your imagination. Bravo.
love this post sooooo much! so creative!!
This is the funniest post ever, and you should redo it for Halloween. I love people who think so out of the box. This is Ultraviolet BRILLIANT.
Feast for the eyes and the senses.
Evelyne I like to play with light but never tried with UV.
The result is so cool especially, the tonic water is sensible to UV light, I always learn something new, very creative 🙂
Cheers,
Gera
Eve, you are SO creative I love it!! 😀
I can’t imagine anyone had a better “color” than you! So interesting to learn which foods glow under ultraviolet light 🙂
Very creative, love it!
Awesome! I donno whether you bent the rules or whether it could possibly be categorized as being creative.
Wow Evelyne, so cool…I love your creativity…the colors are awesome!
Thanks for this fun post and have a lovely week 😀
I was waiting to find out what I will see in this space this time. And you never cease to amaze me. All your ideas and tweaks are unique and I can imagine how much thought and research goes into them. You are so talented Evelyne!
ha, this is totally cool! great job with the challenge 🙂
G’day! Always enjoy viewing things different and unique, true!
I was thinking the same re the blight light dinner party too! 🙂
Cheers! Joanne
This is so original, Ev! And it’s pretty amazing that you got a black light tube to be able to photograph the meal. I love how creative you are!
O.M.G. This is the coolest interpretation ever. You need to have a black light dinner party!!!!! Genius, I love it.
You are so creative and talented!
Love it! Very creative twist on the theme of the challenge and i love that you showed the dish with and without the black light. You win the science geek award!