With the kind invitation of Steamy Kitchen‘s Jaden Hair I attended a class at the Rolling Pin in Brandon last Thursday night.

First, a word about the Rolling Pin. This place is magnificent. In addition to all the great kitchenware stuff they sell, they also sell wine, cheese, and other edible goodies. At the back of the store is a complete kitchen, as seen on TV. It is in this kitchen that they hold their classes (here is a calendar). I’ve never seen anything like it, but friends of mine tell me this is not uncommon in high-end kitchenware stores.


This is the Rolling Pin kitchen. Owner Chef Dave West is standing next to Chef Jaden Hair.

When I visited there was a nice mix of people, young and old, male and female, couples and singles. They all turned out to watch Chef Jaden prepare Crab & Fuji Apple Salad with Vietnamese Dressing, Grilled Chicken and Shrimp Kebabs with Tropical Fruit Salsa, and Firecracker Shrimp with Sweet Chili Sauce.


Here’s a shot of the Crab & Fuji Apple Salad with Vietnamese Dressing. I shot this with my digital camera. This is not the dish that was plated, lit, and shot by Jaden.

In addition to teaching us how to prepare the dishes, Chef Jaden also spent some time demonstrating her food styling and photography skills. She brought her entire set-up to show would-be food photographers how she manages to get such spectacular shots (which you can see at her blog).


Here’s Chef Jaden taking a shot with one of the attendees looking on.

The whole night was a lot of fun, and I can highly recommend taking one of the Rolling Pin classes. Jaden’s tips on how to improve one’s food photography were tremendous. I got a lot of tips on how to light, how to plate, and to do a few neat photoshop tricks to bring out the colors.

Thanks, Jaden!

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