Eat, meet, live and learn. Sharing stories for everyday food and health.

Meet Foodadit – Tom Prezman

  • Tom Prezman photographer Foodadit
On 19th July 2015

Cooking is strongly embedded in the culture of Tom’s family and he’s passionate about the rituals of making. As a natural adventurer he’s experienced different types of food from all over the world. He first met Foodadit during a year he spent living in Berlin, where he connected his love for both food and photography for the first time. His love of sharing has led to work that is sensitive to how food brings people together.

Alanna
How did your passion for food develop?

Tom
My Mum cooks a lot and when she started working in the field as a cookbook publisher she started to bring her experiences into the house, so I’ve always been exposed to all sorts of food. I’ve always eaten everything and I’m really open to trying new things. Whenever I travel I like trying things related to that place, although, having said that, when I first moved to Berlin I had my first taste of escargot!

Alanna
How do you feel about cooking?

Tom
Well, I love cooking, for my friends, with my friends. I like relaxed dinners with wine and the time to talk around a table. Sharing is a big part of how I feel about food. But it comes and goes – there are times when I cook all the time and there are times when I’m spoilt and someone else cooks for me.

For me it’s like a ritual, when I make something I really enjoy making it. At the start I organise it in my head and then I put everything on the table. For example, if I’m going to make a smoothie and I have an avocado that’s sitting there and I have the nuts and the yoghurt that I bought yesterday, I arrange it all nicely. For me it’s all about enjoying every step of the process.

Alanna
How would you describe your approach to nutrition?

Tom
I eat everything in moderation, I don’t eat too much meat – maybe once or twice a week. I think it’s important to eat nuts, I really am a nut lover! I put them in a lot of things and in my opinion it’s the best source of energy.

When I was in Berlin I ate a bowl of yoghurt and granola everyday for two months but I got sick of it, so I stopped. Now I’m drinking smoothies and I change my approach all the time to keep things different.

What I love about smoothies is that they’re a mixture of things that you really like and it’s really rich – it’s like a personality in a glass!

Alanna
At what point did your interest in food photography develop?

Tom
I’ve been a photographer since I was 16 but I started to really connect that with food when I started working as a part of the Foodadit team. It was as if they both found each other. I discovered that there is a whole culture behind food and it differs everywhere in the world and I have a real passion to capture it with my photography. Before that I’d always photographed fashion or documented my travels, but never food. In the past my Mum had asked me if I wanted to do the shoots for the books she was publishing, but I wasn’t confident enough at the time – but now it’s really natural and I’m shooting for her next projects.

Alanna
What have you learnt about the different food cultures as you were travelling?

Tom
I never fully appreciated the food in Israel until I stepped outside of the country. It’s the healthiest food I’ve experienced – fruit and vegetables are the main thing and everything here is fresh – there’s so much diversity here. I found it hard to get used to the food in America as it’s totally different, with all of the cheese and dough and all of the fast food places around.

I think the food culture in Berlin is amazing because it’s really open, you have everything there and the vegan culture is the biggest I’ve seen. I felt comfortable in Berlin – everything was within reach, you have all of the markets, and everything was cheap there. The only thing was that the things that I really missed like falafel, shawarma and houmous, were lousy copies of what I’m used to here in Israel.

In the Far East I had a lot of fish which is my absolute favourite, I could just eat it all day long! Tokyo was really cool and I ate foods that were so strange in comparison to what I’ve been used to!

Alanna
What dishes stick out for you as your favourites?

Tom
I love to make Eggs Florentine which is like brioche with spinach and eggs – it’s really personal to me as I add a mix of cashews and almonds into the sauce. Apart from that I love improvising and creating things from what’s left over in the fridge.

There’s also this one dish called Knights of Beirut, which is an Arab dessert that my Mum makes for me – it’s amazing. Everytime she makes it, I’m so happy and it’s the dish that always reminds me of her.

Article by Alanna Lawley
Pictures by Tom Prezman

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