Portfolio Review: Daniel Krieger Is NYC's Best Food Photographer

Award-winning food photographer Daniel Krieger has graced the pages of GQ, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, and the New York Times. His images bring out the best in celebrated dining rooms and kitchens. Stunning portraits of Iron Chef Morimoto and David Chang also prove Krieger's strengths off the plate. And, it's just impossible to deny how awesome he makes even the most simple sandwiches look.

The Ultimate In Food Porn.

Krieger shares his stories and favorite photographs with Complex for our Thanksgiving Day portfolio review.

I actually don’t love this shot but my girlfriend and all of her food scene minions are mad for it so I decided to include it. She says she likes it because the color and composition reminds her of a 1970s cover of Gourmet. It definitely does have a certain kodachrome tint to it. This was shot at a sweet place in the West Village, Buvette. It is an apple dessert served in big glistening wedges to tables throughout the night. Charming.

This triptych shows a sandwich from Court Street grocers, a little market-café hybrid in my neighborhood. My studio is in my home so I will often amble over to this place for lunch or coffee. This reuben is really stellar, a great evolved version of the deli staple. I shot this on my butcher-block kitchen table, which gets beautiful light. I love the classic red-and-white string, and the bright pink meat.

I shot this for an Edible Brooklyn piece about people who make their own bitters: Here Damon Boelte, head barman at Prime Meats, is showing off some of his handmade tinctures. I shot this on location at the restaurant. The light in there is so flawless, it’s hard to take a bad photo. Although you can’t see it in this image, Damon has one of the most expressive faces in New York and an unimpeachable personal style. He’s also just a fantastic, utterly un-cynical person with this great infectious attitude. He always makes my girlfriend laugh, which I should probably keep an eye on.

The soft focus of this photo is a little out of step with my usual crisp style, but I love the image because it showcases the warm late afternoon light of spring in Montreal. The photo was taken in the lush garden at chef Fred Morin’s Joe Beef, one of that city’s most beloved and unusual restaurants. For her birthday, I took my lovely girlfriend Jordana for a weekend-long Quebecois gastro-jaunt, and the real highlight was our dinner here. I love the roulette of shishito peppers (most are mild; some are incredibly spicy), and their blistered wrinkly texture look so appealing here.

One of my early assignments for the New York Times was a mid-service shoot at Le Caprice on the Upper East Side. While the review was quite negative, I was able to catch this moment and its symmetry and perspective makes it one of my all-time favorite photos. I think it really captures the blue blood spirit of the place, as well as the performance and theater of high-end, old-fashioned service.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with chef Michael White many times over the years, but the most fruitful work I did for him was a series of food shoots at his gorgeous, Michelin-starred Central Park South restaurant Marea. The raw fish here looks so delicate with its tiny purple blooms and sprigs of green. Its just so elegant in that white plate, with that clean depth of field. There aren’t many restaurants operating on this level in New York—anywhere really. It’s a nice break from burgers and fried chicken.

Maxwell is the head bartender at Maison Premiere, a baroque cocktail and oyster bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Maxwell really embodies the mood of the place, with a period aesthetic that is always fun to shoot. I tried to give this photo the same historically informed sensibility that Maxwell and his bar uphold: I shot it with a Tilt Shift lens which allows you to play around with the focus of your subject, and played with the tones in post-processing.

Mile End in Brooklyn is the city’s only serious threat to Katz’s the O.G. king of New York delicatessens. The place takes its cues from the Jewish delis of Montreal where smoked meat, not pastrami, is the stock in trade. I got in close here to show off the fatty, pink and glistening pieces of the stuff piled between slices of malty, mustard-smeared rye.

I’ve done a few shoots with the Iron Chef and found him to be by turns taciturn and funny in the way your favorite uncle is funny after a few glasses of wine. During one shoot he squeezed his face between two dead fish and flashed a goofy smile. He was, understandably, a bit more reserved while working with knives for this shoot. I love his intensity in this portrait, the shadows on his stony face and the way the gray curtains echo the steel of the blade.

This was my first shoot for the dining section of the New York Times. It was an auspicious assignment for me because the restaurant has played an interesting role in my life over the past few years. Strange, fortuitous and serendipitous things have happened for my girlfriend and I during and after meals at Patroon, so I wasn’t at all surprised that when I finally got that first call from the NYT, they sent me here. I like this capture because of the ceremony of the server’s pose, and the graceful way he is slicing the meat. I love that peek of his sleeve lining too. It’s just the sort of detail you expect to see in a power palace like this.

My most recent New York Times job was also the biggest assignment of my career thus far. Per Se was Sam Sifton’s final review as chief food critic there, and he crowned the restaurant the best in New York City. When I got the call I immediately resolved to bring my a-game: I knew Thomas Keller would be seeing my work, as well as the thousands of people eager to read Sifton's last stand. I think I came through. There were so many shots from this assignment I was proud of but I think this one really gets at Per Se’s enduring commitment to fine dining in its purest form. The stacked porcelain plates; the delicate scoop of caviar; the white tablecloth; hay-colored pour of wine and mother of pearl spoon in the fore-ground. The team at Per Se was just so professional and easy to work with. They really set the standard there.

My first shoot at Scarpetta was an interiors project for Eater.com where I've been head photographer for four years. When I was done I said something asinine and cocky to Scott Conant along the lines of "You should hire me to shoot your food, I'm the best there is." I don’t really know where it came from; I guess Scott brings out the swagger. At any rate, he liked it and he bit: He brought me in to shoot food at the restaurant and hired me for some subsequent projects as well. Now he’s a superstar with five restaurants around the country and has logged plenty of food TV hours. But this image of his fritto mistro remains one of my favorite food photographs: It is the first image on my website www.nycfoodphotographer.com and I use it for my business card.