Columbia Food Photography Workshop ft. Stuff Ben Eats
By: Evan Myrdal, CC’24
November 7, 2023
On Wednesday October 18th, Columbia Gourmand had the pleasure of welcoming esteemed foodie, photographer, and instagram mogul Ben Hon (@stuffbeneats on Instagram) to Morningside Heights to offer a food photography workshop. Before he was a social media influencer, Ben grew up working in his mother’s Chinese restaurant in New Jersey spending a great deal of his childhood and teenage years helping her run the family business. This grounded experience gave Ben a soft spot for small business owners and he now takes great pride in the fact that his position as an influencer allows him to help give back to businesses like his Mom’s.
After graduating high school, Ben decided to get away from restaurants and studied finance at Rutgers. He graduated and worked in the finance world where after 15 years he came to the conclusion that finance was not for him. With this new perspective, Ben left his job in 2016 and chose to travel the world for a time. He returned stateside and worked in consulting, real estate, and other odd jobs, but along the way he always took pictures of food. In 2017, he and a partner opened a popup dessert shop. The shop only served two customers its first day, but thanks to help from social media there was a line down the block on day two. Ben, who worked in the front of the house, witnessed customers taking photographs of their food in unique and technical ways.
Once the popup’s run had ended, Ben bought his first camera and, through teaching himself, got into social media and never turned back. From humble beginnings in the family restaurant, Ben has amassed over 60,000 followers in his relatively short time on the platform, was named one of the “33 New York Foodies You Need To Follow On Instagram” by Refinery29, and has been hired to run and advise the social media accounts of some of the top restaurants in New York. Today, Ben is still going strong on the platform with the goal of making every dish look delicious and has recently started to branch out into video content, something he wasn’t comfortable doing for the longest time. “I hate being told what to do,” Ben says in regards to learning new techniques. And so far he’s loved the process of teaching himself video content.
Now to give back to a group of young foodies, Ben came to Columbia University to teach Gourmand members the art of Instagram and food photography. The workshop was split into three sections: Q&A, a hands-on lesson, and dinner. During the Q&A session Gourmand members were able to get insight from Ben about how he runs his instagram, how he gives feedback to restaurants, etiquette while taking photos in a restaurant, and much more. For the hands-on lesson, Columbia Gourmand was able to secure a vast spread of food from nearby Atlas Kitchen and rented cameras and lighting rigs for Ben to use to demonstrate his moody and dark style of photography for everyone to see. His lesson focused on how to properly plate food, how to maximize using a phone camera, and how to manipulate light to your advantage. Following Ben’s lesson on technique and general advice, attendees were then able to put to practice Ben’s advice and take photos of their own. After everyone had a chance to try out their new skills, it was time to dig in!
Ben Hon's visit to Columbia Gourmand on October 18th was a fantastic experience that underscored his remarkable journey from a small family restaurant in New Jersey to social media acclaim. His transition from a finance career to pursuing his passion for food and photography exemplifies the power of following one's dreams. His visit to Columbia University imparted invaluable knowledge and inspired attendees to nurture their culinary creativity and photography skills, skills that Columbia Gourmand members will be able to introduce to our very own content. We thank Ben for his generosity in sharing his expertise and look forward to seeing the creative and delicious dishes that Gourmand members will showcase on their own Instagram feeds in the future.
