SCOTT GORDON BLEICHER PHO(BLOG)GRAPHY

I’ve spent the last few days putting a new photography portfolio together, the gastronomically-themed Perishables. The goal was to incorporate plated food shots, establishment interiors and atmospheres, chef and restauranteur portraits, and a hint of travel/destination photography under the overarching banner of a food lifestyle collection.

Culinary culture, I like to call it.

You can preview Perishables in all of its low res glory here.

The front cover and a few select pages can be seen below.

Bon appétit.

I recently hopped a train to Red Bank, NJ to photograph chef Adam Sobel- creator, owner, and…..driver of The Cinnamon Snail.

The Cinnamon Snail is the country’s first 100% vegan food truck, currently servicing Hoboken, NJ and soon to be making the rounds in Brooklyn.

An in-depth interview with Adam (and a few of the images below) can be found here, on Kitchen La Bohème.

Kitchen La Bohème.

The Bohemian Kitchen.

It’s a vegan pure vegetarian food blog that I’ve been shooting for lately.

A vegan food blog, you say?

Yep.

Well, Scott, are you vegan?

Nope.

Are you, at least, vegetarian then?

Not even close.

So, a carnivore taking pictures for a vegan food blog?

That’s right.

But why?

For starters, because vegan food doesn’t taste like cardboard. Or the back of a postage stamp.

Because I’ve had soy sesame seitan that could’ve fooled any carnivore into thinking they were eating General Tso’s Chicken from Wong’s Wok (real place).

Ok, maybe not the most flattering comparison, but what I’m trying to say is that I didn’t miss the meat.

Because, although I cannot resist the temptation of the cheeseburger, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to eat healthy.

And why the distinction between vegan and pure vegetarian?

Because the term vegan can be off-putting for some, weighed down by it’s perceived elitism and the expectation of its practitioners to be the poster children for a Birkenstock-wearing, bicycle riding, downward dogging, third eye opening, crystals on the windowsill-of-the-universe lifestyle.

Because vegan has become a collective movement as opposed to a personal choice.

Because vegan has become a stereotype.

No, you don’t have to go on Phish tour to be pure vegetarian. You don’t have to live in a Volkswagen Westfalia or make a pilgrimmage to Burning Man or burn Nag Champa or learn how to blow glass or know what your spirit animal is.

You just have to make a commitment to healthy, pure, and organic eating habits.

And you have to love cows.

You do love cows, right?

Right?

(Orecchiette with Smashed Peas, Hot Veggie Sausage and Tofu Ricotta)

A recent commercial interiors shoot for Superpages led me to the ghoulishly-named neighborhood of Gravesend in Brooklyn. Much to my masochistic dismay, Gravesend is home to more Chinese restaurants and Kosher markets than haunted houses and fog-shrouded cemeteries.

A ten-minute walk east from the Q train on Avenue U will lead you to a well hidden Brooklyn gastronomic tradition which has recently been outed on an episode of Man v. Food.

Established in 1938, Brennan & Carr is a wood-stained, brick-walled, Irish-named eatery serving up pub grub from a bare bones menu posted to the wall and printed on the placemats, doing so in the vaguely musky ambiance of a turn-of-the-century Bavarian hunting lodge.




What you come here for is the roast beef the hot beef sandwich, dunked- bun and all, in au jus. If you’d like, you can have another ladleful poured over top, at which time the sandwich becomes a soggy, beefy, salty, fork-and-knife-only affair.

I manned up for my inaugural Brennan & Carr experience and ordered the Gargulio burger- the hot beef sandwich plus hamburger patty, sauteed onions, and gooey melted cheddar cheese. And yes, the whole sandwich was dunked in it’s own broth.

The plating, the idea and the execution are simple. The resulting sandwich is an epiphany for carnivores, and for your taste buds.

Next time you find yourself in Gravesend (because I know you always go there, you know, for the Kosher markets, the Chinese takeouts, the tanning salons, and the Russian nightclubs) make sure you stop by Brennan & Carr for a hot beef sandwich. Have it dipped. If you’re daring, go for the pour.

I’m ready for seconds.

I was in Pittsburgh last week

I was in the City of Champions last week, working on a shoot with good friend and outstanding photographer Matthew Furman. It was a quick flight out of LaGuardia, only spending about 45 minutes in the air.

We would only have twenty-four hours in the Steel City, and most of that time was to be spent scouting and shooting. After dropping our gear and luggage at the hotel, we met with the art directors and enjoyed plates of pierogis and hand-crafted beers at The Church Brew Works- a brewpub set in the nave of a hundred-year old Roman Catholic church, and a worthy mecca to any beer drinker’s pilgrimage.

An early call time in the morning was followed up by a long and rewarding day of shooting in the city. And the perfect parting meal upon leaving Pittsburgh? A quick trip to the Strip District for a Primanti Bros. sandwich, famous for its fistful of cole slaw and french fries between the bread, a staple of hard-working steelworkers and hungry truck drivers for decades.

And now, photographers too.