Sep 22, 2026 · 44 min · 11 segments
In today’s episode, we sit down with Matt Armendariz, food photographer, creative director, author, and founder of Matt Armendariz Studios. For more than two decades, Matt has brought food stories to…
Kirk BachmannHost
Matt ArmendarizGuest
You know, it's such an important lesson, again, and we'll highlight it for our students, that the skills from a so-called detour, if you want to call it that, rarely go to waste.
Your design and art direction background, they didn't disappear when you picked up the camera.
How does that designer's eye still show up in the photographs that you make today?
And I've noticed this is a skill set, not just among designers and photographers, but painters, sculptors.
You know, it's about proportion and where the eye sees things and also understanding what's the most important thing you want to show.
There's things you don't want to show, so you make it smaller in the frame, that kind of thing.
And like I told you before we started the show, we we never want to downplay the amount of work and stress and long hours and stuff.
Just a question that I've been thinking about, and it's not on the script, so apologies to my Noel for this, but it's really important to me.
You know, cooks and chefs ultimately are trained to think a lot about flavor, aroma, texture, temperature, but you have to make someone want to eat something using only their eyes.
which is in many ways, you know, beautiful, right? But what makes food visually tempting and delicious? What do you see that many of us, even well-trained chefs, might miss?
I kind of have to back up into it because I practice a skill where every single person I meet is an expert.
You know, it's such an important lesson, again, and we'll highlight it for our students, that the skills from a so-called detour, if you want to call it that, rarely go to waste.
Your design and art direction background, they didn't disappear when you picked up the camera.
How does that designer's eye still show up in the photographs that you make today?
And I've noticed this is a skill set, not just among designers and photographers, but painters, sculptors.
You know, it's about proportion and where the eye sees things and also understanding what's the most important thing you want to show.
There's things you don't want to show, so you make it smaller in the frame, that kind of thing.
And like I told you before we started the show, we we never want to downplay the amount of work and stress and long hours and stuff.
Just a question that I've been thinking about, and it's not on the script, so apologies to my Noel for this, but it's really important to me.
You know, cooks and chefs ultimately are trained to think a lot about flavor, aroma, texture, temperature, but you have to make someone want to eat something using only their eyes.
which is in many ways, you know, beautiful, right? But what makes food visually tempting and delicious? What do you see that many of us, even well-trained chefs, might miss?
I kind of have to back up into it because I practice a skill where every single person I meet is an expert.
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