Ten years of culinary travel are captured in colorful images of street food from Brazil, Lebanon, Italy, Morocco, Vietnam, China, India, and Mali in this slideshow of photos by Jean-François Mallet. Before making his mark as a food and travel photographer in publications from the French Saveurs to our own print predecessor Gourmet, and in indelibly beautiful books such as Take Away (from which these images and captions were taken), Mallet worked in various Paris kitchens before becoming the chef at the Elysée Lenôtre in Paris. Perhaps because of Mallet's years behind both the stove and the lens, his love of food is transparent in each of these images. But it's not just the food that shines in the French photographer's work—it's the people, where they live, and what the food says about their lives. As Jean-Louis André notes in the introduction to Take Away, Mallet is more than a visual tourist in the vibrant world of street food: He always tastes the food he shoots. "He is seeking not to judge things, but to find their story… His photos are not just shots of food, but shared moments in time."
The sample of Mallet's work that follows includes a typical street breakfast in Hong Kong, a coconut-water cart in São Paulo, and a vendor selling hot chestnuts on the small island of Lipari. We're confident you'll savor the variety of fare as much as we have.
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São Tomé Berry seller by the roadside. PHOTO: JEAN-FRANÇOIS MALLET |
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Jean-François Mallet is a former chef and celebrated author of numerous books that focus on the world of cooking and the art of great chefs. He regularly works with and contributes to the French magazines Saveurs, Elle à Table, and Etoile.