steam is coming off the back of the table,

so they actually could just have a steamer somewhere below

that gives the illusion of a nice, hot fresh pizza.

It could also be a tampon soaked in hot water

that's just laying behind the pizza and steaming up.

Hi, I'm Lish Steiling.

I'm a chef, food stylist and culinary producer.

I've worked on all kinds of food styling gigs

from commercials to television shows and print.

Today, we'll be breaking down food styling

and TV commercials.

This commercial is from Pizza Hut.

- [Narrator] Pizza Hut, baby.

Detroit-style pizza.

With the cheese all the way to the crispy edges.

Savory sauce poured right on top.

Go ahead, get yourself some Detroit Style.

The Detroit-style pizza.

- Look at that cheese pulls [laughs].

Typically, you wanna be able

to use the right kind of cheese.

Mozzerella is the stringiest, pulliest kind of cheese

that you can use.

If you're buying the pre-shredded

any kind of cheese, really,

normally it has an anti-caking agent on it

so it doesn't always give you the best melt.

So really, the best thing to do is to shred it yourself

off of a block.

The cheese has to be at the right temperature.

This can't just be out comes the pizza

and you do it, because then the cheese is too hot

and it's gonna slide off the sauce.

If the cheese is too cold,

it's just gonna break and snap.

It has to be that perfect moment.

That slomo shot.

Bow-chicka-bow-wow, just perfect.

Once you start the cheese pull, you're committed.

Though it's all slow and steady.

Up and away, slow and steady, up and away.

So you're gonna get one pull per pizza, each try.

And if you don't nail it, in comes the next pizza.

The assistant in back is just cranking through pizzas

trying to get these right.

A little secret to the magic

is we actually pre-cut the crust or the slice

before you actually build it.

Then you put your sauce on.

You might even put a little bit of paper towel in between

so that the sauce doesn't seep out.

Then you cover it and load it with the mozzarella cheese.

Now you have the ability to pull up that mozzarella cheese

and get that pull

without actually cutting through the cheese

and losing the pull.

So it gives you that amplified stretch

that you want in the commercial.

To get those crispy edges around the outside,

you have to make sure that you have

a decent amount of cheese on those edges.

So you might actually stick pieces of cheese vertically

so that you have that crispy wall that forms

instead of just sprinkling it around.

That was not one of these actions.

That was a this action.

So this is where oil comes in.

I like to call it lube

because literally, that's what you're doing.

You're taking canola oil

and you're brushing it on very gently with a paintbrush

over the top that makes it look hot and fresh.

You want something that has that glisten

that says, come take a bite of me.

This is my favorite paintbrush that I have.

This guy I like because it can take a lot of oil

and I don't have to keep going back in.

It's great for just stabbing as well.

That's why I like this guy.

You definitely have to consider the camera angle

when you're a stylist.

When you're looking at something this way,

you're looking at the texture.

You're looking at the pepperoni,

how it sticks up and curls up.

If you're thinking about overhead,

you're not caring so much about all of that movement.

The tomato sauce is very glisteny.

You just have to think about the texture as a stylist

to make sure that it spoons on nicely.

So this is the Kunz spoon.

It was designed by Chef Gray Kunz.

May he rest in peace.

He passed away recently.

And it is thought to be the perfect spoon

for spooning things.

The depth of the bowl is deep enough, but not too deep

and it comes to a nice point here

so that as you're spooning or pouring this way,

it comes off in a nice, steady stream.

Just a little tip about a spoon.

Hold it like you do a pencil

'cause you have more dexterity this way

versus holding it like this.

Then you're just kind of awkward and cumbersome.

The more you know [laughs].

This is a commercial for McDonald's.

- [Narrator] How can you make McDonald's

hot, deliciously juicy quarter pounder even more delicious?

One word, bacon.

The new fresh beef quarter pounder, bacon or deluxe.

- Why do people think that bouncing food is more attractive?

For some reason, a lot of commercials have bouncing food.

Something to think about on this burger

is with McDonald's, typically it's done on a flat top,

right, so it's one side, one side.

With this guy, you can tell that it was specifically

rolled on its edge to get some of those brown crispy bits

coming off the edge.

That's what you want because the angle

is going into the burger.

It's not straight on top of it

so you need that golden brown all around.

You can also use a torch or heat gun

to actually get a little bit of that sizzle on there.

This is a little specific gun

that gives you a very specific point of heat.

It's literally called a MAG torch.

It has something to do with construction and carpentry.

Might be a welding tool.

So, the amount of lube on that burger

actually leads me to believe that it might actually

be stored in canola oil.

So, often at the beginning of a shoot,

we'll sear off a bunch of burgers

and then slide them in a bath of canola oil

and when you bring them out and you just

kind of pat them dry a little bit,

use the heat gun if you need to bring them back to life,

and voila, you have a fresh, sizzly burger

that's been sitting for 12 hours.

Here's the thing with getting the cheese

in the right place on the bun.

You're never seeing the back side of that sandwich.

'Cause you're looking into the food

which is good, it's attractive,

but that means you can actually play with the cheese.

So it can actually come forward a little bit more.

You get sexy drape, you cheat the meat a little bit forward.

It's right at the edge of the bun.

It looks like it's a full sandwich

that you just wanna take a bite out of.

So there's definitely tricks that you can do now

to get that wavy looking bacon.

There are pans that you can buy

that actually allow it to drape in that way.

Old school, we used to actually make a aluminum foil

kind of situation

that would allow you to kind of get that waviness

which is the way to achieve that.

Baking just gives you a much more even heat source.

Listen, I love fried bacon like the best of 'em,

but in baking it, you get a more even appearance.

In order to find the perfect bun,

they might have to sent flats and flats

of beef burger buns

for the stylist to be able to pick it up,

do you see enough sesame seeds along the edge?

Is it brown enough far enough down?

Is there any kind of nubbing falling off?

Right, sometimes that ribbony effect

that happens on a bun.

Very sharp kitchen shears

so that if you ever get that ruffle

on the edge of a hamburger bun,

you can simply snip them off.

For the soda in this shot,

it looks like they probably used fake ice cubes

because there's a lot of 'em in there

and they all still look like

they're pretty perfectly intact.

Also, the outside of the glass looks nice and frosty

but you can get that illusion with a spritz bottle [laughs].

It's also good if you're trying to fresh up the pickles.

It's great if you're working with lettuce

to keep things looking crisp and fresh.

This is a commercial for Olive Garden.

♪ It's snowing ♪

♪ The wind is blowing ♪

Bouncing food [laughs] ♪ But I can't weather ♪

♪ The storm ♪ Hello, lover.

♪ What do I care how much it may storm ♪

There is so much happening in this commercial [laughs].

This had to be a multiple day shoot.

Almost every single take in this commercial is a challenge.

From the time-lapsing of the ziti

to the stirring of the soup

and having the dribble come down.

The culinary team in and of itself

would probably have four people on it.

So there's the lead food stylist

and two or three assistants even

or a PA that might help with them as well.

I applause Olive Garden because

there's a lot of details here.

With a slice of lasagna

where it's into the food

and you're seeing all the layers,

you need something to absorb any excess liquid

so maybe there's some paper towel in there.

Maybe there's a little light days panty liner action

to absorb some of the extra.

Something that's gonna stop it from oozing too much.

It just gives you longevity.

It looks dreamy, doesn't it?

I'd eat that piece of lasagna.

To get that bubbly action that's happening

even on the slice,

there's gotta be some kind of heat source

very close by.

A heat gun right on top.

They take it right out of the oven and blast it

and then put it right out in front.

Microwaves work too.

But it's probably some kind of heat source on the set

that's keeping it nice and hot like that.

In reality, with this breadstick in particular,

it's probably one person brushing

and another person coming by and throwing it on.

It's definitely a group effort

between the cameraperson on the pan,

the lighting guy who has the perfect light

coming from the back so it's like oh, it's sunset

and we're just dusting our breadsticks.

It takes a village.

The pouring of the cheese sauce

is all about the consistency of the cheese sauce.

Maybe you have to thin it out a little bit.

Maybe you have to thicken it a little bit.

Maybe you don't have to heat it up

because it pours better when it's cold.

This might be being poured out of a pitcher

because then you get that consistent stream

and you have plenty of sauce in there

to nappee the beautifully browned chicken

that's resting carelessly on top of the pasta.

I mean, it's a whole symphony of white and brown food

that you've never wanted to dive into more, right [laughs].