The best roads sometimes turn out to be the less obvious ones. Case in point: the career path of Irene at Blossom. She moved from digital to branding as she embraced change in order to follow her dreams.

Irene was on a well-traveled path at Blossom, perfectly in step with her own ambitions. But one day a switch was flipped, triggering new aspirations, and she realised she needed to change her job role in order to fulfill her professional dreams.

Blossom believed in this breakthrough and supported her.

Now, as a Blossom Brand Strategist, she helps companies discover the essence of their brand and the positioning that suits them best. And Irene has found the path that works best for her.

In this first episode of Turning Stories – Blossom’s stories of growth and change – Irene tells us about the challenges, desires, and satisfying insights of her personal journey.

My two cents. An editorial by Giacomo Frigerio.

Food is often the topic of conversation, probably too often. Especially where I was born. In Italy, food is a religious matter. Something that brings people together, but also divides them.

Think about salame… if you travel 10 kilometers in any direction, salame is made differently. Take, for instance, the area where Blossom is located: here we have Brianza salame. Just 15 km away, you’ll find traditional Milanese salame, and in Bergamo, another 20 km further on, they produce a softer salame with different techniques (I still remember my grandfather, Agostino, and his friends gathering in a small town in the province of Bergamo to make salame together – a moment of celebration, community, storytelling, and brotherhood). If you visit Crema, you’ll discover other types of salami (plural of salame) with different shapes, then comes Piacenza-style salame. From there, you enter the land of Felino, then Parma, and so on. In short, by the time you reach Reggio Calabria, you’ll have come across hundreds of different types of salami.

This is reflective of our small country and its many unique culinary traditions. And it’s precisely this uniqueness and diversity that provides daily inspiration for people like us, those who never settle for the ho-hum, for “normality,” for the ordinary.

We are a communication agency with a chef and a kitchen. Back when we started and there were only five of us, we made pasta and ate lunch together. Now there are many of us. Our chef Paola cooks incredible things every day to help us balance the energy we need to perform at our best.

Because food is not just pleasure, it’s also vitality, culture, life. An essential part of our day-to-day and work, it fuels us. We have clients in this world, from small producers of high-quality products to big brands seeking to revolutionize the market. For those who come to our Blossom headquarters north of Milan, there’s always a bite of something to welcome them. An inviting aroma that makes them feel at home, like when mom used to cook up a meal for our friends.

In this issue of Snap, we blend our love of food with our desire to learn, discover, and seek new ideas, sharing stories of people in the industry who have inspired us and whom we respect.

Happy reading, and buon appetito.

The art of transforming food into an object of desire.

“One thinks, dreams, and acts according to what one drinks and eats.” Those are the words of F.T. Marinetti from his 1930 Manifesto of Futurist Cuisine. And yet, in front of a billboard for a new yogurt or a TV spot for ice cream, Marinetti might say today “One drinks and eats according to what one dreams.”

In other words, according to what advertising makes us dream.

Because when it comes to today’s food industry and consumer habits, how we present food plays a huge role in what we eat. Not only does it influence purchasing decisions, but it can even affect appetite. And if that’s now possible, it’s thanks in part to the art of transforming dishes and ingredients into pure objects of desire.

That is the art of food styling.

But what does a food stylist really do?

Today, many roles contribute to the success of a food campaign, but one in particular truly makes a difference: a food stylist.

As it involves food preparation, one might think a food stylist is first and foremost a cook. Since it involves images, one might have the impression they are specialist photographers. In some cases, this may be true, but that’s not the point: a food stylist is the person who can make a deflated panettone look perky and a grilled chicken breast appear irresistible.

To better understand what a food stylist actually does day-to-day, we went straight to the source.

Her work is artisanal, but it goes beyond just craftsmanship.

For Luisa, a good food stylist must have a list of reliable suppliers: from trusted fruit vendors able to find three different types of cherries in February to producers of special materials. But they must also be highly efficient: “I started in the USA with one of the best food stylists in the world. We were an all-female team and she made us work like military battalions. That’s how I learned organization,” says Luisa, who adds, “Being organized allows you to take more and better shots.”

While Luisa remains a food stylist on every set, the skills she brings to the table are always different. Despite the breadth of knowledge required, specialization remains a fundamental characteristic in the industry. “There’s only one person in Italy who can make tuna fish look good. Everyone knows it!” says Luisa. “On the other hand, I excel at shooting ice cream. But even in this field, there are very few of us in Italy.”

That said, food styling doesn’t necessarily mean producing images where the product looks unnatural or fake.

On the contrary, Francesca reveals that the current trend is towards a more natural presentation of food, where even post-production is “lighter” without compromising the image’s appeal.

What does luxury mean when it comes to hospitality? What role does food play in a 5-star hotel? Francesco Spreafico, owner of Bianca, and Michelin-starred chef Emanuele Petrosino give us their take.

Our first episode of Outlooks, a column dedicated to encounters with entrepreneurs and companies in discovery of new trends and business perspectives, takes us to the Michelin-starred kitchen of Bianca, a boutique hotel on Lake Annone near Lake Como, founded in 2019 by Francesco Spreafico.

Feeling at Home

Francesco opened the doors of Bianca and invited us into his world: a place where luxury is a simple concept and hospitality is a sought-after balance between a warm welcome, top-quality food, and sustainability.
Watch the episode.

Delicious eats for hardcore workers: our chef’s recipes, tailor-made for everyday survival.

Paola is Blossom’s chef. Every day, she whips up lunch for the entire agency: 70 hungry folks, sometimes frantic, often in a rush. Individuals who hold different roles, each with their own quirks and needs. That’s why Paola has crafted ad hoc survival menus for each team in the agency.

Today, let’s dive into the first six.

Recipes created by chef Paola in collaboration with her brother, Carlo Spagnuolo, nutritionist biologist and expert in plant-based diets.

To taste them, stop by to visit!

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Article: Federica Mosca
Illustrations: Daniela Lucherini

When food becomes freedom. Our photo shoot with youth at In-presa Social Cooperative

Food is nourishment. Food is image and business. Food is passion. But sometimes, food stands for the future and opportunity.

Such is the case with In-presa, a social cooperative that focuses on professional training, educational support, and job placement for adolescents facing difficulties.

Among its educational programs, In-Presa offers youth the opportunity to become professionals in the restaurant industry. It also has a pastry school and catering service that provides employment, providing them with a path to recovery and growth.

When we discovered In-presa, we found an organization that uses food as a means to seek and create Beauty, as a medium to give purpose to those who may struggle to find it, and as a way to offer young people the opportunity to find themselves.

For this photo shoot, we featured some of the students currently attending the school. Each person portrayed themselves, both in and out of their work attire, each one free to tell the world: this is who I am.

To support the social cooperative In-presa or to learn more about the projects, please visit the website.