HellyBelly...

HellyBelly is the blog belonging
to travel, food and portrait
photographer Helen Cathcart
www.helencathcart.com

Sunday 30 September 2012

Jared Brown - Sipsmith Gin - AFAR Magazine

Jared Brown is the master distiller at Sipsmith Gin. That is the lovely gin you may have seen in the best bars with a gorgeous swan on the label. I was commissioned by AFAR Magazine, a beautiful travel mag produced in San Francisco, to photograph Jared at his home in the Cotswold's. 
Here he has a lovely little cottage garden where he grows all the botanicals that he tests out for his gin making. He is so passionate about every plant and flavour and smell and said it was very important to grow all the ingredients which they actually use in their Sipsmith Gin so that they can understand them at every step. He also has a beautiful collection of old books on drinking and cocktails, where he said he gets lots of inspiration for his gin recipes. I had such a lovely day getting out of London and learning about all Jared's plants and hearing about his amazingly interesting life, and he even took me to the local pub afterwards for a pub lunch!

Sunday 9 September 2012

Builders Arms, Chelsea

This was a commission by Geronimo Inns to shoot some of their food for their PR shots. Geronimo have lots of gastro pubs around London, each one designed very uniquely. Whether you realise it or not I guarantee you have been in one. These beautiful dishes were cooked for me by Sam at the Builder's Arms, a lovely pub hidden behind the King's road in Chelsea with an amazing menu. Just imagine tucking into that pheasant on an autumnal Sunday! The artichoke heart was a work of art and check out that scotch egg.

Monday 3 September 2012

The Table Cafe, Southwark

I have been meaning to put these up for ages. This is a shoot I did for the new menu at Shaun Alpine Crabtree's Table Cafe in Southwark. Created by new head chef Cinzia Ghighoni, previously of Duck Soup, Angela Hartnett and Zucca, it consists of beautiful ingredient led dishes. They get all their herbs and veg from the homeless charity St. Mungo's, an amazing idea which has homeless people working allotments in the city and selling the produce. And I think you can see above why their breakfasts are award winning!