Food and wine magazine · Rai 1 · 2003 — 2013

Occhio alla spesa.

For the Rai 1 show on conscious consumption we sculpted an entire grocery — bread, pasta, cured meats, vegetables, pastry. Hyperreal, in polystyrene and fibreglass.

Story

One act

A grocery
sculpted by hand.

Occhio alla spesa is the Rai 1 show devoted to conscious consumption: every episode takes apart a product category — bread, pasta, cured meats, vegetables, pastry — and explains its supply chain, prices, labels. The director asks Creation Art for a gastronomic scenography: not the fake plastic of a shop window, but a hyperreality worthy of a Dutch still life.

We work by product category: a block of sculptures for the bread (Apulian round loaf, braided brioche, tomato pizza, sliced sandwich bread, donuts, focaccia, michette rolls), one for pasta (penne rigate, farfalle, rigatoni, bundled spaghetti, fettuccine, mafalde), one for cured meats and meats (whole chicken, dry- cured ham, salami, frankfurters, mortadella, beef ribs), one for seasonal vegetables (pumpkin, corn, carrots, broccoli, peppers, onions, aubergines, cherry tomatoes), one for pastry (jam tarts, pretzels, croissants).

Technique: every item starts from a reference photograph laid on the worktable, is sculpted in expanded polystyrene, reinforced with fibreglass, finished with filler for the details (the crumb of the loaf, the ridges of the penne, the grain of the salami), then hand-painted with the correct gastronomic palette — the golden patina of the crust, the bright red of the tomato, the lard- pink of the ham.

The result is not a plastic display: it's a still life made for television, one that holds the locked-off camera for whole minutes without giving away the trick.

Still life of oversize sculpted bread for Occhio alla spesa: round loaf with crust striations, small michette rolls, braided brioche, tomato pizza, sliced baguette, sandwich bread loaf, donuts, focacce in the foreground; in the background a second counter with cured meats and cheeses — The bread counter — finished, hand-painted

Workshop view of the bread counter in our studios: all the bread shapes carved in white expanded polystyrene before painting — striated round loaf, michette rolls, focaccia, biscuits, fougasse, oval rolls, on a yellowish polyurethane foam base — The same shapes before painting — white polystyrene

Hand-sculpted cured meats and meats counter: whole roast chicken, layered dry-cured hams, pink salami, pink frankfurters, mortadella, pink beef ribs with white fat, green salad leaves, on a white faux-brick stone base — The cured meats and meats counter

Counter of sculpted and painted vegetables: orange pumpkin, corn cobs with husk, bright orange carrots, dark green broccoli, celery, purple aubergines, red and yellow peppers, red cherry tomatoes, white and red onions, on a white base; bales of foam rubber in the background — The vegetable counter — full palette

Second still life of bread and pastry: two upright baguettes, giant golden pretzels, red/brown lattice-topped jam tarts, croissants, focacce, donuts, sfogliatelle, two stand-up bread sticks like mechanic batons — Pastry — jam tarts, pretzels, croissants

Sculpted pasta counter: bundles of tied yellow spaghetti, penne rigate, rigatoni, farfalle, brown rolled fettuccine, mafalde, on a white base; underneath, some reference photographs laid on the worktable — Every pasta format — sculpted one by one

Act two

Under the production design
of Patrizia Cardoni.

Occhio alla spesa debuts on Rai 1 in 2003: a food and wine magazine show created and hosted by Alessandro Di Pietro, broadcast Monday to Friday for ten seasons with an almost documentary attention to conscious consumption — labels read out in studio, prices compared, supply chains explained to camera. Fifty minutes per episode, prime-time slot, a steady audience.

For the studio still lifes, director Salvatore Perfetto calls in Patrizia Cardoni as production designer: the show wants a Flemish still life aesthetic, not a supermarket-aisle look. The painting has to tell the food itself in the camera's close-up — the crumb of the loaf, the grain of the salami, the moisture on the pepper. We receive the commission for the volumes: we sculpt, we reinforce, we paint by hand.

The show closes on 4 April 2013 after the host's dismissal for surreptitious advertising during the 2011-2012 season. For us it remains a long commission — the years in which Occhio alla spesa keeps renewing itself mean new still lifes every season: different pasta, different vegetables, different desserts. A scenographic archive that keeps growing.

Workshop view of the bread counter in the CA studios — white polystyrene before painting — **Bread in progress.** Every shape sculpted in polystyrene, before painting

Counter of sculpted and painted vegetables — **Seasonal vegetables.** The full gastronomic palette — a still life for the locked-off camera

Sculpted pasta counter with reference photos on the worktable — **Pasta + reference photos.** The workflow: every format sculpted while looking at the photo of the real thing

Behind the scenes

The Flemish still life,
on a locked-off Rai camera.

Gastronomic scenography for TV is a niche of the craft: it's needed almost only for consumer-affairs shows or food talk-shows, but when it is needed, the brief asks for a hyperrealism that the elegant plastic displays simply cannot deliver. Three techniques held together: photography, sculpting, painting.

The reference photograph

Every food item starts from a real photograph laid on the worktable: an actual sample of the loaf to be made, a catalogue photo of the salami, a scan of the pasta at original size. The sculpting proceeds while looking at the photo next to the polystyrene: we don't model from memory, because memory romanticises bread and television does not forgive romance.

The detail filling

After the rough sculpting in polystyrene, every piece must be filled by hand for the details the camera sees: the perforated crumb of the loaf, the grain of the salami, the ridges of the penne, the wrinkled skin of the pumpkin. It's microsculpture work with epoxy filler and finishing tools — hours of work for every piece, but it's what makes the difference between "sculpted grocery" and "hyperreal".

Painting against the real thing

The gastronomic polychromy is done holding the reference photograph in the left hand and the brush in the right. Every colour is compared directly with the real one: the red of the pepper isn't a generic red, it's that specific red; the pink of the lard is specific to that vein of the ham. Acrylic glazes, matte finish for the bread and satin for the ham.

10 years

of broadcast, from 2003 to 4 April 2013

50 min

episode length until 2012, then 25 min inside Unomattina

5 counters

sculpted: bread, pasta, cured meats, vegetables, pastry

Tech sheet

All production data

Type: Gastronomic scenography for TV show · hyperreal still life
Show: Occhio alla spesa · Rai 1 food and wine magazine show devoted to conscious consumption
Period: From 2003 to 4 April 2013 · Monday to Friday · 50 minutes per episode (2003-2012), then 25 minutes as a segment of Unomattina (2012-2013)
Created and hosted by: Alessandro Di Pietro
Direction: Salvatore Perfetto
Production design: Patrizia Cardoni
Costumes: Rosaria Rapuano
Cinematography: Ugo Mantova
Production: Paolo Saccani (producer) · Simonetta Fazzari (executive producer) · Rai
Pieces produced: Bread counter — round loaf, brioche, pizza, sandwich loaf, donuts, focacce, michette rolls · pasta counter — penne, farfalle, rigatoni, bundled spaghetti, fettuccine, mafalde · cured meats and meats counter — whole chicken, ham, salami, frankfurters, mortadella, beef ribs · vegetable counter — pumpkin, corn, carrots, broccoli, peppers, aubergines, onions, cherry tomatoes · pastry counter — jam tarts, pretzels, croissants
Techniques: Hand-carved expanded polystyrene · fibreglass reinforcement · detail filling (crumb, grain, ridges) · hyperreal acrylic painting from reference photographs
Workflow: Every food item starts from a reference photograph laid on the worktable — modelled at real size, scaled up, sculpted, reinforced, painted in direct comparison with the photo. No generic references
Our role: Full delivery of the gastronomic still lifes — sculpting, reinforcement, polychrome finish, set-up · still lifes renewed season after season across ten years of programming
End of the show: 4 April 2013 · host Alessandro Di Pietro dismissed for surreptitious advertising during the 2011-2012 season
Second life: The still lifes entered the rental catalogue for food fairs, photo shoots, retail set-ups

Other sculpted sets for TV and gastronomy

Lavazza commercial — the dreamlike oversize food for the coffee brand
Peroni commercial — the historic harbour in ten days
Ciao Darwin — the Genodrome portal
Il braccio e la mente — the toy factory
Topo Gigio Show — the big-top village
Rock Politik — Manhattan inside a Rai studio

Second life

The grocery preserved,
season after season.

Occhio alla spesa has the longevity that only Rai public-service shows have: ten years, on air almost every weekday. For the gastronomic scenography this means that the still lifes are renewed season after season — new pasta arrives, new seasonal vegetables, editions with regional southern bread, editions with holiday pastry. It's a scenographic archive that keeps growing.

When the show closes in April 2013, the sculpted food items return to our studios. Many are kept in the rental catalogue and come in useful in the years that follow: food fairs (Vinitaly, Cibus, Salone del Gusto), packaging photo shoots for pasta and Italian food brands, set-ups for delicatessen chains and concept stores. Fibreglass doesn't expire — the bread sculpted in 2008 is still identical to itself today.

The hyperreal-gastronomy techniques developed here — mandatory reference photo, detail filling, painting in direct comparison — are the same ones we apply whenever a sculpted food commission lands in another field: from the Lavazza commercials with their dreamlike oversize food, to concept- store windows, to museum displays about food and wine.