Creative Industries

I work with professionals from across a wide range of creative industries. I use my wide range of experience to offer feedback on anything from the historical accuracy of a pastry served at an event to conceptualizing and creating futuristic foods, kitchens, and food technologies for an independent film. My diverse background allows this work to go in a lot of directions, sometimes well beyond the history of food.

Not sure if your creative industry fits in to my work? It probably does! Get in touch and let’s chat.

Film

I assist filmmakers and production outfits with projects large and small. I provide historical research services, as well as set dec of historic foods (for example, making authentic pastries for a scene in a bakery). I also use my background in food history and fermentation to inform projects well outside the scope of historical work.

Currently, I’m working behind the scenes on a film called Salvage Mission 9, which is a post-apocalyptic science fiction film that explores how we harness technologies (or don’t) after the fall of civilization.
I am doing set dec for all food and food tech in the film (including preparing the food itself), and offering research support.
In this particular case, I explore food, and food production, through a technological lens on set. In this instance, successful food preservation (and thus, survival) takes place by looking back at historic technologies. One key method we’re using is fermentation, although other methods, such as dehydrating and foraging, are also in play.

As someone with both a tech and history background, and a background in food, I’m uniquely situated to be a part of this film, and love projects (like this one) where I can bring multiple facets of my background together to help someone else’s creative dream come true.

If you’re curious about how my experience can fit in to your film production, please look at my complete CV, which lists what I have done in several fields, or drop me a line and let’s talk!

Authors

I love helping fiction and nonfiction authors bring their projects to life. I have helped journalists find academic sources for their articles (and served as a source in quite a few, too), and help fiction authors (whether it’s a novel, screenplay, or something else) think through the worlds they build by giving feedback about the food that might be present in that world.

As with all the work I do, I pay special attention to the larger social contexts surrounding the food, so the authors who work with me are able to produce accurate work that speaks to the microcosms and macrocosms of communities (real or imagined).

And more!

Other fun creative projects I’ve helped with include helping farmers identify what heirloom seeds to plant, offering feedback and research support on academic work (within the bounds of research ethics, of course), and discussing food with visual artists.

Have an idea? Let’s talk!