Side Dishes: Karolina Palmer (Food Designer)

So, Karolina, what was it like to design the food for the Palate Challenge?
Cooking, designing, and styling the food for the Palate Challenge was so fun.

For those that don't know yet, the Palate Challenge is the game show that is featured Chasing Taste.
Imagine having something you made showcased on the Price is Right! Sort of like that. But better. Even though the food I made was only used in one day of shooting, it took several days on the back end to test, prepare, and cook, of course! 

How do you prepare the food?
Food shows up so much differently on camera than it does in front of your face. As a food stylist, you need to be able to convey smell, texture, and taste through a visual medium. This means sometimes using inedible things in place of foods or pairing foods that look good on camera, that you probably wouldn't eat in real life. The oxtail stew was prepared with various soup ingredients glued to toothpicks and chopsticks so that they perfectly floated on the soup. But I can't give away all my secrets...

We always hear about divas on the set, was there a particular food that you would say turned out to be a diva?
One of the foods I had to prepare was a layer cake for the challenge. The week prior, I had tested several different frostings at home to see what showed up best. From homemade to store bought, I checked to see which one looked "frosting-y" enough. As it turned out, a combination of several store bought frostings did the trick. As a result, I had a lot of frosting fans hovering around the food table all day. I recall quite a few sugar highs that day. Leftover frosting made for a perfect afternoon pick me up for much of the cast and crew. As did the several leftover layer cakes, once we were done shooting that scene. Cake for everyone!

Yeah! I love cake. Well, don't tell anyone but I believe that the food is really the star Chasing Taste. 
I'm so happy I got to be a part of this project as food certainly plays such an important "role" in my life. An actor, I am not, but at least  my food can be!

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