Food, Friends, Fun & Photography – My Food Photography Workshop In Chennai

I

t’s been a while since I last posted here, and that’s mostly because I have been travelling a bit this month.  I made 2 trips, a very short one back home to Kochi/ Cochin and another slightly longer one to Chennai. 

It’s been fun meeting family and good friends, shopping some, eating great food both at home and out, and conducting my first formal food photography workshop. I had earlier announced a one-day basic food photography workshop at Chennai on the 17^th of this month and it was an opportunity to meet some old friends and make some new ones too.
 

From left to right : Kajal, Aparna, Meena, Nithya, Divya, Shalini, Ram, Lata, Rajani and me!

 

The 17^th of November was a cool morning, a little unusual for Chennai this early in the year but I wasn’t complaining. My cousin and the cab driver who took me to The Kettle (the workshop venue) ensured that I was there a good 45 minutes ahead of time in their anxiety to make sure the infamous Chennai traffic didn’t interfere with my plans for the day.

The Kettle at Anna Nagar in Chennai is a lovely little tea café that specialises in different varieties of tea ranging from the simple to the exotic and desserts and short eats that pair well with their teas. So if you like your tea and are in Chennai, the Kettle is a place worth visiting. I can personally vouch for their iced strawberry tea.

 The owners of The Kettle were extremely kind enough to offer us the use of their Tea House for the photography workshop. I cannot thank their manager and staff enough, for making sure that we were comfortable and helping us make the workshop a lovely experience. I couldn’t have done all this without Nithya, who organised the venue and made all the arrangements there for me.

I must also thank Neelam at UrbanDazzle who generously sponsored some ceramic ware/ food photography props for the workshop participants. If you are looking for good quality and reasonably priced kitchenware, glassware and tableware, I would definitely recommend UrbanDazzle, and my recommendation comes from my personal experience with UrbanDazzle and their packing and shipping is also very efficient.

I leave you with photographs from the workshop and the Kettle Teahouse.

 

 

The Kettle is a Tea House specialising in a variety of teas. 

 

 Just in case you would rather enjoy your cuppa while watching the world go by...... 

 

 Darjeeling? Oolong? Assam? Puerh? Herbal? They've got it all .......... 

 

 

This is where the tea gets made.....



 Take your pick!

 

 

 

They serve coffee and chocolate too.....
 



 

"Kala Zulph" (translates from Urdu to English as Black Tresses!) The tea brews at the table and comes with a cute timer so you can decide if you want your tea light, medium or strong!
 

 

Iced Strawberry Tea (Crisp Samosas in the background) and Oreo Cookie Ice-cream too!
 

 

 

Ferrero Rocher-Chocolate Cake!

 

 

The ceramic ware sponsored by UrbanDazzle and the goodie bags.
(The goodie bag image courtesy Meena Thennaapan)