9. Profiles in Style, Part II

When my mom and I began planning our cookbook photoshoot last year, I soon became concerned for the health and safety of our still-hypothetical food stylist. For context: the primary duty of a food stylist is to present food beautifully, but the role often entails the actual cooking as well. Having a hand in the recipe from start to finish—with the allowance to make adjustments as necessary—affords more control over the photo-readiness of the final dish.

When I informed my mom that a food stylist might want to do some or all of the cooking at our shoot, she was horrified. My mother is a confident and resolute cook, deeply (and understandably) protective of her work and process. In her ideal photoshoot, she would cook every single dish. Unfortunately, our shoot was only 8 days long and encompassed almost 100 dishes, so a single-handed approach was impossible. My mom would need to work together with a food stylist. “Ma,” I began, “you need to promise me that you won’t castrate our stylist while they are working with you in the kitchen.”

“Why on earth would I do that? When have I ever castrated anyone?”

“Every time we are in a kitchen together.”

“You are my son,” she reminded me. “I can do whatever I want to you.”

—

Fortunately, the food stylist chosen by our photographer Kevin was the consummate professional and collaborative savant Trina Kahl. Trina impressed me in many ways, but I was most struck by the grace with which she worked under and alongside my mother. By contrast, even after countless hours of writing and recipe testing together, my mother and I never landed on a process that could be fairly described as ‘smooth.’ (Rest assured, dear reader, that our recipe testing travails will be the focus of a future newsletter installment.)

Trina hails from West Kilbride, Scotland, and is now based in Kansas City. “I’ve always cooked,” she says. “My mum was a really good cook. I spent my teenage years cooking at a golf club, then got a culinary degree from the Scottish Hotel School at the University of Strathclyde.” Cooking stints abroad and commercial work for both ad agencies and clients followed thereafter.

Trina’s entry into food styling was a bit of an accident. “I landed up at a photographer’s house for a shoot. Given my experience in commercial work, she suggested I consider styling. I did a test run with her, and that was it,” Trina explains. “Styling brought everything together that I already knew.”

When we first met Trina on our pre-shoot prep day, she brought with her a thick binder of our 90+ recipes, which she had read, reviewed, and annotated in advance. For most projects, she is also in charge of ingredient sourcing, shopping, and prep work (although my mom shouldered those responsibilities for our shoot.) “The job also involves a lot of reading, a lot of research,” Trina says. “I spend a lot of time on Pinterest, reading cookbooks, all the food magazines. It’s all in service of staying current in the field and familiar with the trends.”

Watching Trina work is a joy. “The thing with food,” she explains, “is that dishes can die.” Great photography takes time, and a stylist’s job is to keep food looking as fresh as it did when it came out of the hot oil (or off the stovetop) while the photographer fiddles with lighting, composition, and angle. Trina’s signature gold tweezers and a spray bottle are always at the ready while she’s on set: “A slight rearrangement, or a little bit of water, can make fruits and veggies catch the light, and that glint makes things look fresh.” A light brushing of oil is another way to get that sheen. Trina is also extremely handy with paper goods—her stuffing of rotis with paper towels to preserve the flatbreads’ hot-off-the-stovetop puff is something my family still talks about.

Trina’s foreverpuffed™ rotis

© 2025 Kevin J. Miyazaki // Heartland Masala

I should note that Trina’s zhuzhing never compromised the integrity of the food. No food colorings or dyes were used, and we ate every single thing Trina styled once Kevin got the shot (after extracting any relevant paper towels, of course).

It was such a treat to watch and learn from Trina, and we’re honored to include her within the Heartland Masala family.

Until next time,

Auyon