Ariyani Tedjo

This Christmas, I made a rustic, wintry scene of a village center showing buildings made of cinnamon sticks. The base used is still gingerbread cookie slabs with all walls covered with cinnamon sticks. One house's roof is also covered with cinnamon sticks while the others with black peppercorns and chocolate coins. The Christmas tree and wreaths are gingerbread cookies covered with royal icing and sprinkles; the powdery snow is none other than desiccated coconut.

Cold, rainy days always command a hot chocolate. An indulgence is certainly adding lots and lots of marshmallow to the hot chocolate. Gingerbread cookies are definitely a flawless complement to this comforting drink.

The very first idea of this shot came from the little sauce dish. I was so fascinated with that and worked to find what food to shoot. I decided to have a go with Tobiko, the flying fish roe popular in Japanese cuisine. Then I played around with stones and dry ice.

This was the first time I made shots of splashing drinks. I decided to go with iced tea for color and clarity. Since I wanted to have both a splash and an ice cube in the air, I used two ice cubes. Voilà! It works nicely in this frame.

A good friend of my father happens to be a Japanese chef here in Jakarta. The food in his Japanese restaurant is pretty authentic. One of my favorites is this tofu dish of Agedashi Tofu. It's deep-fried soft Japanese tofu in a flavourful broth of soy and dashi (Japanese fish stock). Garnished with green onion and katsuobushi (shaved fish flakes)

I had a chance to shoot this delish dish. I styled it with a contemporary bowl, plate, and chopsticks that also go well with Japanese food; then combined those with authentic Japanese teacups.

Indonesian Traditional Snack Stall. Fascinated with the richness of the traditional snacks in Indonesia, I created a scene resembling a snack stall. I selected the snacks, both sweet and savory, from several regional cuisines to be "sold" here. From the popular ones across the country to ones that can only be found in specific local markets. Textures and colors definitely come into play.

The stall was set up at home; having a Javanese lady dressed in Javanese Batik as the seller. Here she is seen scooping a local Javanese snack called Tiwul (steamed cassava granules) from a snack tray called Lenjongan, which can be found in local traditional markets in Yogyakarta and Surakarta in Central Java.

For Mid-Autumn Festival, Yue Bing, or traditional mooncake is not to be missed. This year, I decided to make my own. For the setup, I purposely used vintage china passed down from both my grandmothers. This way, I induced the mood of the old school vibes that traditional Chinese pastries often have. Here seen a piece of mooncake has been molded using modern, and easier to use, plastic mold; leaving the molded mooncake on the floured wooden block.

For the Mid-Autumn Festival this year, I decided to make my own mooncakes. One kind of mooncakes that I made is called snow skin mooncake as the skin is soft and slightly powdery. The skin is made of mochi dough and does not require any baking at all. For the paste fillings, I used durian purée in the blue mooncakes and custard in the white mooncake. The blue mooncakes used natural coloring from butterfly pea extract while the white ones are simply plain milk.

Nasi Campur Donburi

A popular Indonesian rice dish consists of steamed rice with several meat and vegetable side dishes, chili paste and crackers.

The one here is a creative version in terms of the plating/serving style and side dishes picks, from several regional cuisines in Indonesia instead of from a single region.

The dishes are Balinese Shredded Chicken, Sundanese Stir-fried Yellow Bean Curd, and Javanese Stir-fried Chayote Squash. Garnished with thin slices of Japanese cucumber and a lime half.

Usually, the rice dish is plated on a plate, but this one is plated in a Japanese style donburi bowl. Hence, the presentation is geared toward Japanese with a pair of chopsticks, Japanese condiment saucer for the chili paste; all arranged on a tray as a Teishoku. The Peanut Crackers are served separately and placed next to the tray.

Agar-agar Gula Merah
A simple, homemade gelatine dessert; a favorite of my late grandfather. This is agar-agar with coconut milk and brown palm sugar. Molded-in single cups; then garnished with Kersen Cherry blossoms and accented with golden teaspoons.