Fall 2006

Looking good, tasting good

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Food stylist Cyndi Raftus McDowell can build ice cream sundaes out of Crisco and corn syrup right along with the best of her profession. But making food look better than life isn’t her goal. When McDowell prepares food for a photo shoot or TV show, she wants to make it look simultaneously beautiful and approachable.

“I take the journey of the everyday person, fixing everyday food,” she says. “ They want it to look great, but they don’t want to use tricks. For example, a diced tomato appears more accessible if it isn’t diced into perfect, uniform pieces.”

A free-lance stylist, McDowell’s clients include magazines Gourmet, Food and Wine, Country Living, Every Day with Rachael Ray, and Everyday Food. She also styles food for television, including “The Late Show with David Letterman,” the Food Network, and “CBS This Morning.” In addition, she is a part-time staff member for Martha Stewart Omnimedia.

After she graduated from The College of Wooster in 1979 with a degree in theatre and communications, McDowell went to New York City with a burning ambition to act. “So of course I was a waitress, a bartender, a caterer—anything I could do to survive,” she says. Food service survival jobs continued for 25 years, at which point McDowell vowed to get “far, far away from food.”

But a friend who was in the food styling business convinced McDowell not to throw away her experience. Her friend became her mentor, and today, nine years later, McDowell has joined the ranks of creative designers who are passionate about what they do.

Program or art directors provide McDowell with a recipe, and she and an assistant scour New York City for the freshest, healthiest ingredients, which she takes to a studio and prepares for a show or a photo shoot. She is also asked to create recipes and has developed a special interest in food that appeals to children.

At the end of the day, McDowell and her colleagues sit down and eat what they’ve created. Leftovers are taken to food pantries.

“I’ve learned about light and beauty from people from all over the world,” she says. “I work in beautiful studios and in incredible locations with creative photographers and designers—people who love their work and are happy.”

“I love what I do.”