A career good enough to eat (+recipe)

Susan Spungen was responsible for all the food on screen in It's Complicated, starring Meryl Streep and Steve Martin. Photos / Supplied

New York-based food stylist Susan Spungen has worked with actress Meryl Streep twice in quick succession - first on Julie & Julia, the movie documenting one woman's quest to cook like culinary legend Julia Child, and then on romantic comedy It's Complicated.

As well as sharing the same leading lady and being released in 2009, these two movies have another common factor: food is a vital part of the finished product. Not merely a static prop, the food has an elevated significance, variously reinforcing character traits, reflecting emotions and even underscoring plot points.

"In movies like It's Complicated where the food is an important part of the movie and it's running through many of the scenes and has to have a certain look and feel and also consistency, that's when someone like me is brought on to execute the vision of the director," says Spungen, whose most memorable scene was the one in It's Complicated in which Streep's character, Jane, is cutting up a chicken.

"Meryl is angrily chopping off the chicken leg when Alec Baldwin walks in after he's stood her up the night before.

"In order to do that scene, we cooked 50 chickens. We actually counted. I think we cooked 50; we might have used 49 or 48. This went on for a couple of days and it was constant chickens coming out. It went on and on because a scene like that has to be shot from a variety of angles and with many takes of each angle so each time it had to be a completely new chicken. I think that's the kind of thing that people don't realise."

Just as the character's emotion was portrayed via the fervent dismemberment of the chook, the food was also intrinsic to Jane's overall identity.

"Food was really very important to her character. It was very much part of who she was. It showed her nurturing spirit, her earth-motherliness, all of that. It was just extremely important to who she was as a character."

Author of Recipes: A Collection for the Modern Cook, Spungen was also the food editor for Martha Stewart Living for 12 years until 2003 when she turned to freelance food styling.

The first hint that a culinary career might be lying ahead came in kindergarten when she insisted on cooking a recipe for "Christmas cookies or something" that appeared in a weekly reader.

Most of Spungen's early forays into the kitchen involved baking cakes and biscuits.

"I liked the trial and error of it. I enjoy feeding people."

Over the years she's worked as a chef and a caterer. Partly self-taught and also groomed by formally trained chefs, she steadily acquired the knowledge and expertise that has led her to one of the most coveted roles in the food styling business.

"I probably got the same kind of training that people get in culinary school but I got it while getting paid. I was down in the trenches, actually cooking and doing all that kind of stuff and then I made the jump to editorial."

Well out of the trenches now, Spungen's work has taken her to Paris (for Julie & Julia) and most recently to Rome where she was the food consultant on Eat Pray Love, an upcoming Julia Roberts movie based on Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir, in which food also plays a starring role.

Specialists such as Spungen are charged with ensuring that any food captured on film appears as mouth-wateringly delicious and sumptuous as possible.

But on every movie set, out of view of the camera, is an industry staple known as the "craft service table" - which typically groans with calorific snacks such as doughnuts and muffins to sustain the crew.

"There's always a lot of unhealthy food around. The craft service table is like a curse. I always would try to stay away from it. I think it's a lot more than people actually need. When I was on set in Italy or in France the caterers provided a much healthier selection of food than the Americans provide."

One of the perks of having her own kitchen on set is that Spungen is able to cook for herself and often rustles up a nutritious chicken or salmon salad or sandwich.

"Everyone welcomes a change from the catered food so occasionally I hosted little lunches for anyone who was around."

Off-duty, Spungen is most likely to entertain friends at her weekend house on Long Island with casual brunches, intimate dinners for eight or even barbecues for one hundred guests.

"I naturally veer towards Italian cooking left to my own devices, but I dabble in Asian and, of course, what we call here 'farm-to-table'. I really enjoy just shopping at the farmers' markets and getting inspired by the ingredients and cooking simple healthy food."

* Jane's chocolate cake recipe from the movie It's Complicated.

WIN WITH VIVA

Viva has five DVDs of It's Complicated, valued at $39.99 each, to give away. Starring two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin it is a comedy about marriage, divorce and everything in between. With a thriving bakery, a new romance and her divorce finally behind her, Jane Adler (Streep) has her life all figured out ... until her ex-husband Jake (Baldwin) decides he'll stop at nothing to win her back.

To go in the draw, simply write your name address and phone number on the back of an envelope and send it to: It's Complicated Competition, Viva, NZ Herald, PO Box 3290, Auckland. Entries close June 2. Winner announced June 9.