Three Layer Cake

Who: Matt Armendariz
What: Food photographer, writer, art director
When: 3 October
Where: My house in Rome, his house in L.A.
Why: Because he’s simply amazing. Matt is the author of a blog called MattBites and has his photographic portfolio at MattArmendariz.com . The writing is as good as the photography is as good as the recipes is as good as the humor is as good as the site design… An all around good guy, Matt has lived across the U.S. and has worked in food from bagging groceries all the way to the top. I never tire of reading his blog entries, but I’m sure he’s tired of me asking him, “Have you got your book deal yet?” It would spoil all the fun to give a preview of what Matt is like.  His work speaks for itself, and I wish he were my neighbor!

Matt Bites

How did it all begin, this love affair with food?  It began when I was a child, I think. My parents and two older sisters and I grew up with my grandparents in the house, they lived with us. They came from Mexico, from huge families themselves. Food was always the center of everything: the whole family got together for dinner every night. I realized then the importance of food and cooking and how it brought people together. That nurtured my interest in food. My grandmother used to show me how to cook things. I probably started cooking very basic things when I was 9 or 10 and learning my way around the kitchen. 

Getting into food professionally was kind of an accident. It all started seventeen years ago, when I was in college. I took time off to travel and did that for a few months and came back home to Texas, and had to get a job, and that’s when I started working for Whole Foods Market bagging groceries. I realized that being around real food was really exciting to me. It was almost like an accident. 

Eventually, I went from bagging to graphic design. At the time, Whole Foods was expanding and was looking for graphic designers for their advertising. Later I moved from graphic design into marketing and then art direction. I left Whole Foods about seven years ago to go to another food company and I’ve been freelancing for the past couple of years.

Which culture’s food best captures “Matt Armendariz”?
I think you go through your 20s being crazy and wild and everything and as you get older you realize life is about a balance. And as I realize that, I see the foods I eat becoming more important to that balance. So Vietnamese cuisine comes to mind, and its contrasts—hot and cold, sweet and salty, animal protein and vegetable. It’s a cuisine I don’t think I can ever get tired of.

Why did you decide to move into photography?
I moved into photography almost out of necessity. In working in art direction, photography is so very expensive and I sometimes didn’t have the budget to do the photography I wanted. I had worked so many years supervising shoots and really having the best hands on school for photography that anyone could have even before I ever picked up the camera. I already had the vision in my head and only needed the tool to realize the vision.

What’s the hardest part of your photography work?
It would probably be that I am a perfectionist. The hardest part is seeing a vision and not having it translate in the final product. That’s not to say it always has to be the way I envision it, because it’s a fluid process and amazing things happen and unexpected results occur. But to me, not being able to pull the pieces together is really frustrating. 

Sometimes with the nature of food, you have a small amount of time to get to your vision. You’re dealing with an entire teams’ worth of time. That includes the chef, the stylist, the prop stylist, and so on. So you’re not always afforded the chance to get there. If you have the chance, then you can keep going at it, hoping it will happen. If I don’t’ have that opportunity, I have to stand back, look at it from a different perspective and see—is it focused, is it conveying a similar mood that I expected, is it technically ok. As an artist, sometimes you have to learn to let go. 

What would you like to do more of?
I would like to capture people and food together in a more spontaneous environment. I love the connection that food has and also the history. And it would be wonderful to share that. Not so much people eating as people talking about food, or a recipe that was handed down to them, or some aspect of food which is dear to them, and conveying that passion through photography.  I’d also like some travel assignments, I’ve got something in the pipeline in the near future, fingers crossed. 

I think what’s happening now is that American publications have caught on and are not only hiring Australians to work on publications—many of the photographers you see working in our publications these days are indeed Australian—and in addition to the photographers and stylists, our publications are also getting a little shot in the arm from the overall style of those publications, and I think it’s great! That Australians do it better has been the perception for some time. They’ve always been ahead of the curve. It’s funny that it’s only just now trickling down to us in the U.S.

How has the food industry changed since you’ve been working in it?
It has changed by leaps and bounds. When I started in natural foods it was esoteric and hippy-esque, and it was something to be made fun of by mainstream America. Now, that’s completely changed. Everyone’s concerned with high quality foods, sourcing local and organic ingredients, and actually asking questions and paying attention to their foods. All of this has come around since I’ve started, and I can’t think of an industry that’s changed that much. It’s just completely amazing to me.

What role do you think the internet has played in U.S. food culture?
I think it has had a huge impact in food. If only by allowing people who love food to unite and to share. When I say share, I mean from recipes to interests, to information about restaurants. I think it has had a profound change. 

Has it changed U.S. food print media?  Absolutely. Taking the example of Daily Candy, and other sites which are able to offer readers content, breaking news, and product information on a more frequent than daily basis, this has completely changed the way print media does things. It has changed the immediacy of it all the way the print media deliver information, the old guard sensibilities have fallen away. Now you see a lot of publications paying attention and investing in their online presence to be able to keep up.
 

Does this aspect of the food industry change photographic needs?
Definitely. It gives a certain caché to the fact that it’s so spontaneous, and that someone took a picture with a quick point-and-shoot. That type of photography works very well on the web but would be completely unacceptable for print.

What role does your blog play in your professional life?
It plays a huge role. At the same time, I’m also very cautious about keeping a separation between the two. A lot of the themes I work with in my professional life require that I am sensitive to the needs the client. As a consequence, a lot of information I don’t share on the blog. However, the blog has helped my professional life by putting my work out there. I’m also able to reach more people on a daily basis with my blog than I ever could through my professional life. It has definitely helped me get work, and non-blog readers are always quite surprised at how effective the site has been in diffusing my name. 

Can we talk about food and socioeconomic class? The largest part of your working career was spent with Whole Foods (Bread & Circus, Fresh Fields), a brand which came to be synonymous with “organic” and “quality”. It’s also a supermarket which championed the small and medium sized producer, not the multinationals.

I know you are an equal opportunity eater because I know you eat at the taco truck, but what about the less affluent?  What are they eating?  Is there equal opportunity to “quality” food in the United States, or is this falling along socioeconomic lines as well, like so many other fundamental needs these days? When I started with Whole Foods, there were two stores located in ‘regular’ neighborhoods. And somewhere along the way, it’s almost as if eating well was ‘hijacked’. I understand that eating well became expensive, but I don’t understand why. In the past few years, eating well has become trendy and has left an entire class of people outside of it. I didn’t grow up rich, but I grew up appreciating good food, so it’s frustrating to me that a healthy lifestyle means access to healthy food, but we don’t make it accessible to all people. 

   
What is concerning to me is, and unfortunately we have statistics to prove this, the less affluent are eating processed food, foods high in fat, convenient foods. The whole trend of eating fresh and local doesn’t even touch this category of people. I wish I knew a way to make it connect, and I feel people like Alice Waters are doing that work through their foundations, but I don’t think we’re anywhere near where we should be in this country.

When I go to the Farmers’ Market, though, and I talk to the producers and see that taking away a small bag of their produce costs the same as a convenience meal in one of these fast food restaurants, I just see that something isn’t right. High quality food fruits and vegetables don't have to be expensive. But then again, it's all about time and access.

Suspending all needs for proper refrigeration and shelf-life… Which three foods, recipes, or culinary-related paraphernalia would you put in a time capsule today that say the most about you and the times we live in?
This is such a hard question… would I put something in there that says where society is, or where I am? I guess it comes down to things I couldn’t do without, which are so basic: salt, olive oil, and my molcajete which I’ve had with me all my life.

What motivates you?

Eating what food brings back the best memories and why?  Very simple rice and beans. Simple Mexican food that I grew up with, that I ate every single day. 

First thing you notice about a restaurant?  The smell. I can excuse décor, location, even the ambience of a restaurant, but if it doesn’t smell right the moment I walk in, I just can’t eat. And I want to add that a restaurant has to smell right plain and simple, but I will leave the word good up to you. Another thing is like if somebody has mopped a floor in a restaurant, I’m like come on guys! That smell of fake pine…UGH! 

Favorite flea market find? Where is it today?  It is a 1950s teak salad bowl. It’s in my kitchen and I used it just yesterday! I love it. 

Most coveted kitchen tool?  Probably an insanely sharp knife that my friend Aun (chubbyhubby.com) gave me. It’s my prized possession. I can’t even look at it without getting cut. I have a band-aid on my finger right now because I cut myself on it.

Best color for a front door? Persimmon. 

Most recent celebrity crush?  I have to give two. One is the actor Paul Rudd because he’s just so adorable. The second one is Helen Mirren because I believe she has more sex appeal in her pinky than any other woman alive. 

You’ll always pick up a magazine if ____________________ is on the cover. (You’re not allowed to say one of your photos!)  Hahaha, I don’t like looking at my own work, so I can easily say any photograph by Con Poulos.. He’s a food and lifestyle photographer.

You never leave home without it...
iPod. It’s got a bunch of everything, but mostly Brazilian dance.