Q & A | Food Blogger and Stylist Tami Hardeman

Photo by Tami Hardeman

Tami Hardeman’s blog ‘Running with Tweezers’ has received national acclaim for its mouthwatering recipes and the frame worthy photographs of the dishes she creates. The blog chronicles her love of cooking and inventing dishes in addition to the importance of healthy food in our lives. The Atlanta resident credits her mother with her creative seasoning skills that can be seen in all of her recipes. Tami spends her days working as a food photographer capturing images of delectable edibles for advertisements and editorial pieces.

When not working, she joins fellow food bloggers in supporting Share Our Strength, an organization working to end childhood hunger in America. She tackled the topic of hunger head on in 2009 with her Eat on $30.00 challenge. The project’s purpose was to shed light on those struggling to fill their pantries when government food assistance is the only money they have. After finding out the average weekly budget for their food was between $21-$24, Hardeman asked followers of her blog to join her in finding out what it felt like to eat under those circumstances.

CommonCreativ talked to Tami about food inspiration, her life as a food stylist and the name Running with Tweezers.

CommonCreativ: Was food always a focal point in your home? Who taught you how to cook?
TH: I never realized how much food was a focus growing up until I was an adult. My parents were always in the restaurant business in one way or another. Outside of that, my mom was an amazing cook. She grew up on a farm in North Dakota and going out to eat was something that wasn’t possible, so she grew up cooking and watching my grandmother cook. I wouldn’t say my mom TAUGHT me how to cook, but her influence is everywhere — the importance of seasoning things as you go, her improvisational style of cooking. I see a lot of that in the ways that I cook.

CC: Your photographs make the reader want to leap through the computer screen and eat the food. What type of camera do you use to capture your images?
TH: Thank you! I have a Canon 5D Mark II that I shoot with and I use a 100mm 2.8 lens on it about 90% of the time for food and tabletop shots.

CC: What led you to become a food stylist?
TH: It happened completely by accident. I was a fashion stylist journalist at the time and one of my clients asked me to be an assistant on a food shoot, since he felt iffy about the stylist they hired and he knew I could cook. I went and my life was never the same. Even though I was in the business, the idea of a food stylist was completely foreign to me. I fell in love with it and changed career paths – I went back to square one and started assisting on food shoots so I could learn the craft.

CC: Your recipes are original and creative while remaining accessible to the everyday pantry. Where do you get inspiration for the foods that you cook on your blog?
TH: The things I choose to post or the recipes I choose to make are really craving-driven. I get really inspired by traveling and I often come home from a trip or think back on a restaurant I visited once and say “I really wish I could eat that again.” I try to put my own spin on it or write the recipe in a way that it’s easy for me and the people reading along to recreate.

Photo by Tami Hardeman

CC: What do you think fuels your passion for food?
TH: Despite the fact that I make food look good for a living, I think the most important aspect of food is the emotional connection people have to it. Cooking is a show of care, of concern. Caring for them by nourishing them. What do people do when someone has a baby? They make food for them and take it to their house. What do people do when you have an illness or death in the family? You take food to them to make sure they’re fed. It’s the universal way of sharing of yourself with those around you and showing them you care. Some of the ugliest foods in the world – short ribs, my mom’s stuffed cabbage are the ones I have the strongest connection to.

CC: Who are some of your favorite photographers, chefs and bloggers?
TH: Locally, Iain Bagwell is a phenomenal food photographer. I think he’s one of the best food photographers in the country right now. I think Hector Santiago (of Pura Vida) and Billy Allin are my favorite chefs in Atlanta right now for different reasons. Hector is so brilliant in the way he combines textures on a plate. I just adore Billy’s food and dedication to quality of his ingredients — even the simplest sounding plate is incredible because of the products he uses. As for local bloggers, it’s hard to keep up with all of the blogs sprouting up. Savory Exposure is a great local blog — Broderick has an interesting point of view when it comes to food photography.

CC: Your Eat on $30 challenge was great at bringing the true food budgets of many to light. Would you do it again?
TH: The Eat on $30 Challenge is one of the best things I’ve ever done, I think about it often. I’ve wanted to do it again but it’s hard with my work schedule to have time to dedicate to doing it properly and not cheating, there’s lots of free food and craft services on photo shoots. I have purchased coffee at a coffee shop about 1/10th as much as I did before the Eat on $30 Challenge – when your daily food budget is $4, that $3 latte doesn’t look so important anymore. For the past three years, I’ve led the Food Blogger Bake Sale here in Atlanta, which raises money for Share Our Strength. We’ve raised $10,000+ in those three years and been the #1 bake sale two of those three years. It’s a charity I feel strongly about and it’s a thrill to help them every year.

CC: What is the meaning behind your blog name ‘Running with Tweezers’?
TH: At its most obvious, it’s a play on the Augusten Burroughs novel, but it’s also what I do at my job every day. Folks think we just sit at a kitchen table and make a pretty plate and someone takes its picture. Food styling is a very physical job, 8-10 hours of standing, hustling with melting food, wilting leaves and cheese pulls.

CC: What most inspires you about the Atlanta food and art scene?
TH: I think the one common theme across the food art scene here in Atlanta is that we have to work a little harder to get noticed. Hugh Acheson has been making amazing food in Athens and now Atlanta for many years and it’s taken a while for folks to take notice of him. We have amazing talent in our town and I think the incubation takes a little longer before folks realize it. That makes us a little scrappier and I appreciate that about our town. Folks work hard here — I know I do — and there is a lot to be said for that.

Photo by Tami Hardeman

CC: You use your blog not only for recipes and photographs of your creations, but also to talk about events in your everyday life. What is your favorite thing about doing the blog?
TH: I started my blog almost 7 years ago as a way to get back to writing as well as to have an outlet for food recipes that I don’t normally have at my job. It’s still, to this day. I’ve been through a lot since I founded my blog — the death of two parents, heartache, love, friendships, lots of travel — and it’s a safe place for me to go, pour my heart out, and share the stories that go along with all the amazing food in my life. It’s tough sometimes not to edit yourself to death, to be so open and transparent in front of whatever size your audience is. I’ve found, though, that some of my most raw emotional posts are the ones that connect the most with people, not only is food a common thing among most people, but so is loss and love.

CC: Food is a medium that tells so much about the people who sit down to eat it. What do you think foods of Atlanta say about our town and the south?
TH: I’m a creature of habit and go to the same 10 restaurants all the time, but the places I go say to me: we’re not fussy, we appreciate the culture and the traditions of food, we know that good doesn’t have to mean fancy, we’re friendly and familial and we’re not scared of having a good cocktail before (or after) dinner.