HexClad

The Challenge

HexClad is a premium hybrid cookware brand, and Chef Masaharu Morimoto was joining its Culinary Council. The announcement needed photographs that sold both at once: the Iron Chef as a personality, and the cookware as something he actually cooks with. They had to work across HexClad's advertising, its social channels and its own site.

Our Approach

• —Two looks in one session. A dark, red-lit set for the portraits, where the pans become part of the show, and a warm working kitchen for the cooking, where they read as tools. One chef, one session, and enough range for a whole campaign.
• —A red sun behind the chef. For the portraits, we lit a single red circle on the wall behind him, a nod to the Japanese flag and the tradition his cooking comes from. It's a detail our creative team developed for this shoot, and we think it took the photography to the next level.
• —Let the personality do the selling. Morimoto is an entertainer at heart, so the direction leaned into it: a cleaver held up like a mask, a pan sending its contents into the air, a whole pineapple cut clean through. The product is in every frame, but the reason to stop scrolling is him.
• —Product, hands and food, not just faces. Alongside the portraits: close detail on the knives and pans, his hands at work on fish and sushi, and finished plates, so HexClad's team had a frame for every placement, from a feed post to a product page.