Scratch Kitchen is unique concept in that it is a ghost kitchen based out of Boulder, Colorado. What this means is that Scratch Kitchen acts more like a virtual food hall, housing several other brands under its name and primarily engages with its customers via online ordering. The restaurant itself has a very limited physical footprint, only big enough for customers to come up and place or pick up an order, without any tables or places to enjoy their meal onsite. 

Since guests' first impression of Scratch Kitchen’s brands were more than likely going to be across owned digital channels and on third party delivery sites, their food photography was of the utmost importance. The challenge here was to represent three concepts in a distinct enough way that each could stand on its own, while still feeling like a cohesive part of a larger family. Overall, the look and feel of the photography for Scratch Kitchen is light and airy to showcase the brand’s warmth and inviting personality. A less-than-perfect, slightly messy approach to food styling represents Scratch Kitchen’s dedication to using local and organic ingredients and their overall casual approach to the concept. 

From there, each sub-brand had its own particulars incorporated into its photoset to best differentiate one from the other. Kin & Co, the comfort food concept, focuses on darker backgrounds, warmer richer materials, and higher-contrast lighting to give a lived-in sense to food photography. Club House, the sandwich concept, has the softer-lighting of midday, and is propped to feel like the sandwiches could have been made at home. Lastly, Greenlight, the salad and bowl concept, is brighter overall and features punches of color to match the vibrancy of the bowls. 

For this project, I directed the overall art by selecting props, styling the set, and working closely with photographer Chaise Tinsley to achieve the look seen here. 

Scratch Kitchen’s Photography Art Direction was done for Vigor. If you would like to see the rest of the case study, click here.