About
Richard Longhi's food styling career began in 1996, when he started working at Peter Eliot Production Studio in Chicago. They were pioneers in the use of high speed, motion control cameras for high resolution food commercials. There he first began to learn the tricks of the trade necessary to create super realistic food, such as beautifully grill-marked t-bones, captured as they flip through the flames of a hot grill; or prototypical almonds, as they tumble through the air before slipping into a velvety pool of perfectly smooth chocolate. He learned how to create meticulously styled bowls of cereal and fruit and the perfect milk pour needed to create beautiful explosions of flakes; and how to temper and texture ice cream so that the perfect curl could be captured as a spoon cuts a path through a vast field of Rocky Road. He also learned that there must be enough hero product ready to go to set when the director calls for another take.
Through his career, Richard has worked all over the country for too many agencies, clients, photographers and directors, to list here. He has been the lead food stylist in numerous national ads and from 2010-13, he was the lead food stylist for a series of 27 Campbell's Soup commercials, filmed in Vancouver, B.C., Chicago and New York City.
Richard received his cordon bleu education at the Culinary and Hospitality Institute of Chicago (CHIC), where he graduated at the top of his class, and spent his last semester at the L' Laboratoria Scuola “l’etoile” di Sottomarina, Venice. Before attending culinary school, he received his BA from the University of Missouri and did his graduate work in Fine Art at the University of Illinois, Chicago. In 1982 he opened his first studio in the Flat Iron Studios building in Chicago's Wicker Park where, along with his fine art, he painted backdrops, built models and sets for commercial print and film ads. He stopped making commercial art after he began styling food, but continues to paint and exhibit his work. His current studio is in the American Stencil Building in Chicago, where his paintings can be seen by appointment.
