We’ve all scrolled through our favourite food blogger’s Instagram, wondering how much time and effort it took to make those cupcakes look so appetising. The fluffy-looking snack sits artfully on a wooden platter, with a tastefully burnished background highlighting the icing.
Food photography isn’t an easy task, and with a deluge of food bloggers, it’s that much more important for their pictures to stand out.
For a long time, they had to resort to buying expensive boards from the United States or Europe — not to mention the high shipping costs, unless you had someone coming to India, who was kind enough to lug along a heavy package.
But, for the past few months, out of a workshop in Old Pallavaram in Chennai, Bewin Berachah Paul has been quietly helping in this respect: he hand-crafts wooden serving trays, cheese boards, pizza platters and more.
An engineer-turned-entrepreneur, he always loved working with wood in his father’s workshop. But it was his wife Sheeba, who runs home catering business Namma Biriyani, who sparked off what is now Berachah Chizels.
“I wanted a solid cutting board, because the commercial ones would wear out so fast. Since I knew he is good at it, I asked him to make a couple for me,” she says.
Bewin says, “I was a bit apprehensive, as I had stopped working with wood after I had a mishap and injured a finger. But I went ahead, and she loved it. I then made a few for some friends on request. When they posted photos on social media, there were some more requests. With a market in place, we decided to take the leap of faith.”
Once a month, he travels to the south of Tamil Nadu, where he sources various types of wood. The most common is the portia wood (poovarasu in Tamil), apart from neem, teak and mahogany. “We also use aged wood, or any uniquely-shaped logs that we come across. They add a vintage and quirky feel. These are very popular as they look great in photographs,” he says.
Jofy Abraham, who runs the blog ‘Foodie Adam Cookie Eve’, was one of Bewin’s first customers. A family friend, she also does the photography for Berachah Chizels.
“Being a food blogger and photographer myself, I know that people are looking for less-expensive options to jazz up their Instagram posts. For example, table tops with a rustic finish are a much-coveted look, but they can be prohibitively priced. We recently launched a line of MDF backdrops in various finishes, and they are in high demand,” she says.
Apart from their monthly catalogue — which includes their most popular “Fat Teddy” boards — they also undertake customised orders and ship across the country, and shortly, will start shipping internationally as well.
Bewin sketches the designs and a couple of full-time craftsmen execute it in the workshop. They also have two artists who add their unique touch to each piece. This includes using a blowtorch to “burn” the wood and painting intricate designs on the platter handles.
Fulfilling some of the ideas that their customers have can be challenging, says Bewin. “Some of them ask us to work around a hole in the wood, keeping it intact. Weathering is another process that we have to do carefully. But each request gives us new avenues to experiment. Once, someone wanted a name laser-engraved on a board they were gifting; now, that’s something we offer regularly,” he says.
Their latest product is a rustic cake stand: a round slab of treated wood with the bark still around it, and a smoothly carved stand.
Since they launched their Facebook and Instagram pages, home bakers and chefs, food bloggers, stylists and photographers, kitchen studios and restaurants have been their regular customers. Apart from this, they are adding beauty to the everyday kitchen as well.
“We haven’t had to advertise at all; our customers do it for us,” laughs Sheeba.
Currently, they showcase their products at The Farm on Old Mahabalipuram Road.
As for what the future holds, Bewin says, “We never planned for where we are now. So we will take it as it comes. In the meanwhile, I’m happy doing what I love.”
Prices start at Rs. 1,000. For details, call 98402 47705 or email berachah.chizels@ gmail.com.
