Upon presenting his portfolio to a culinary art instructor, chef and food stylist Yossi Machluf was given the sage advice —You’re already on the right path; just keep doing what you’re doing. He did just that.
His journey began when he moved to Los Angeles at the age of 24. “At some point, I missed my mom’s cooking, so Ii called her, took some recipes over the phone and started cooking for myself and friends,” he recalls. ”It become bigger and bigger, so what was a hobby just become a challenge. And I saw that the culinary world in my area had flavor, but it wasn’t pretty food. I felt I could change it.”
Yossi knows how important it is that food looks appealing. “The first thing people are attracted to is the look,” he says. “You can make a great-tasting dish, but if it’s not attractive, you will see the hesitation on people’s faces.” Styling the food also plays a part in appealing to the senses. Yossi prepares and styles a range of foods from raw fish dishes—tuna, salmon, etc.—to finger foods and mini dishes. “Lately, I have been asked to do many desserts tables. That is a challenge as it is more delicate, and when you design a dessert table, you have to factor in the masses as well.”
Some factors that Yossi considers when styling food is whether the feel and display should be classic or rustic and room temperature. “If you set hundreds of dishes on a buffet, it will take time before people will finish them all, so you need food that can be eaten cold or at room temperature.” Even choosing the right plate is important. Certain foods, like salads, need more space to bring out all the colors, but a dish can’t be too large either. “Every dish has a different color and all the colors need to complement each other, so you can’t design same color dishes next to each other,” he says.
Yossi has never prepared the same menu twice. “It’s funny that even people who may have had a dish in a different form before get excited like it is the first time they ate it,” he shares. His ability to prepare varied dishes is attributed to, in part, his method of approach. “When beginning a project, I look at elements that usually won’t be used for food presentation, and I determine the creative way to make it cool enough to display with food with it,” Yossi says. “I just did an event and had to make a crepe station. I wanted to serve it in cones in a deconstructed way. I found a piece of wood on the street and after sanding it and drilling holes, it can hold those cones and now it is a very cool station.”
