‘Chef’s Table’ DP Breaks Down the Cooking Sequences Using a Single Camera and Minimal Takes
Cinematographer Adam Bricker has been shooting episodes of Netflix’s “Chef’s Table” for over a decade. Back then, the steamer was the first to push content out in 4K and later HDR. And so from the get-go, Bricker needed the right cameras to capture whatever he was shooting: “We’ve always used Red cameras because they had the right resolution, the right size for these small kitchens. Over the course of the 10 years, we’ve just been keeping pace with the technological progression of the cameras and sort of always trying to shoot on the latest thing.”
Another decision the team made was to make the show single-camera. Speaking with Variety‘s Artisans, presented by HBO, Bricker says, “We’re not hosing things down and capturing a bunch of content to figure out later in the edit. We’re coming into it and thinking about where the camera should be, always being in the right spot, and not having to navigate a second camera.”
This season, chef Jamie Oliver is the subject of one episode, which was primarily put together using archival footage. Bricker explains, “It was telling the story of not a chef that is best known for working in a kitchen, but a chef that’s best known for working on television and in media. It was just a different type of story to tell, and I think that that challenge was really fun.”
Bricker hadn’t seen any of Oliver’s shows. Director Brian McGinn showed him a few episodes of Oliver’s work, including clips from the 1990 series “The Naked Chef,” and Bricker says he was blown away. “He was really breaking the mold of what food cinematography could be. It was shot on a mix of video and on film. It was the sort of handheld, run-and-gun like loose verité. And at the time, most cooking shows were studio-based, so very static, three cameras, maybe like a top-down shot lit. This was shot in Jamie’s apartment, and it had this documentary energy that was so inspiring. I immediately saw that that show had influenced [Anthony] Bourdain’s work and then, honestly, ultimately ‘Chef’s Table’ to some degree. I think the visual signatures that they developed had trickled down into our own visual language.”
Since Bricker knew there would be intercutting with archival footage for this episode, he wanted to create a visual distinction between the two aesthetics. His approach to shooting the food was to have a neutral color temperature and to try to make sure there was a single shadow on the food, while keeping it verité style for the interviews.
Says Bricker, “I love the interviews in this episode because we shot one of them in a pub that meant a great deal to Jamie, and that’s just very simply lit, soft light coming through a window because it was motivated and felt very real for this food symphony.”
In one sequence, Oliver is making focaccia. That was shot by the episode’s second unit DP, Charlie Panian. Bricker explains that the idea was to visually present that as “sort of a memory. It’s Jamie cooking with an old friend and reminiscing on when he was first inspired to cook, that connection with food.”
Since there was a lot of natural light in the space, Panian wanted to accentuate it. “Charlie used an HMI to give some hard daylight to mix with the soft light to create this sort of nostalgic, dream-like thing that’s happening,” explains Bricker. “I love the shot of their hands as they squeeze the olive oil, and then that beautiful frame where the sunlight is pushing through the olive oil in the foreground and Jamie’s there in the background. It’s just beautiful stuff. It’s the heart and the soul and the passion, and really the touch and the feel.”
Another decision the team made was to make the show single-camera. Speaking with Variety‘s Artisans, presented by HBO, Bricker says, “We’re not hosing things down and capturing a bunch of content to figure out later in the edit. We’re coming into it and thinking about where the camera should be, always being in the right spot, and not having to navigate a second camera.”
This season, chef Jamie Oliver is the subject of one episode, which was primarily put together using archival footage. Bricker explains, “It was telling the story of not a chef that is best known for working in a kitchen, but a chef that’s best known for working on television and in media. It was just a different type of story to tell, and I think that that challenge was really fun.”
Bricker hadn’t seen any of Oliver’s shows. Director Brian McGinn showed him a few episodes of Oliver’s work, including clips from the 1990 series “The Naked Chef,” and Bricker says he was blown away. “He was really breaking the mold of what food cinematography could be. It was shot on a mix of video and on film. It was the sort of handheld, run-and-gun like loose verité. And at the time, most cooking shows were studio-based, so very static, three cameras, maybe like a top-down shot lit. This was shot in Jamie’s apartment, and it had this documentary energy that was so inspiring. I immediately saw that that show had influenced [Anthony] Bourdain’s work and then, honestly, ultimately ‘Chef’s Table’ to some degree. I think the visual signatures that they developed had trickled down into our own visual language.”
Since Bricker knew there would be intercutting with archival footage for this episode, he wanted to create a visual distinction between the two aesthetics. His approach to shooting the food was to have a neutral color temperature and to try to make sure there was a single shadow on the food, while keeping it verité style for the interviews.
Says Bricker, “I love the interviews in this episode because we shot one of them in a pub that meant a great deal to Jamie, and that’s just very simply lit, soft light coming through a window because it was motivated and felt very real for this food symphony.”
In one sequence, Oliver is making focaccia. That was shot by the episode’s second unit DP, Charlie Panian. Bricker explains that the idea was to visually present that as “sort of a memory. It’s Jamie cooking with an old friend and reminiscing on when he was first inspired to cook, that connection with food.”
Since there was a lot of natural light in the space, Panian wanted to accentuate it. “Charlie used an HMI to give some hard daylight to mix with the soft light to create this sort of nostalgic, dream-like thing that’s happening,” explains Bricker. “I love the shot of their hands as they squeeze the olive oil, and then that beautiful frame where the sunlight is pushing through the olive oil in the foreground and Jamie’s there in the background. It’s just beautiful stuff. It’s the heart and the soul and the passion, and really the touch and the feel.”