French fries


The potatoes in the bin were exceptionally long so I put a few in my basket with no particular immediate purpose. 


The potato is trimmed into an imperfect block.

The potato block is cut into long planks.

The potato planks are cut into boards.

The potato boards are parboiled in water.

The partially cooked potato boards are frozen.


The potato is removed from overnight cell-destroying cryogenic storage. 


Still frozen, the potato sticks are dumped into hot oil.  

The temperature of the oil drops due to being iced by frozen potatoes so the heat is kept on high through the violence. The crackling and popping subsides and the temperature of the oil slowly rises. By the time the temperature rises back to ideal frying temperature the potatoes are pretty much dehydrated and done.


I'm still not completely happy with these. 

You know what I think is part of the problem? Can you imagine picking up your box of McDonald's French fries, taking it over to a table and photographing it from different angles, various camera settings, lighting, moving things in and out of the picture, messing around with available light? Well they tend to go cold, the fries do. But I see no happy answer to the problem of photography before consumption destroying the thing being photographed and consumed. Obviously, if I scarf the French fries while they're hot from the oil then there would be nothing to photograph and I would be unable to pursue my artistic impulses. The answer is two batches, one to be photographed and the other consumed, but profligate handing of food is unacceptable and I'm just not going to do that. Cold fries. See, the sacrifices I make to satisfy compulsion and the internal conflict I accept for ART

1 comment:

John said...

superb I love these ,,,,,,crispyyy

Blog Archive