In this food-loving town we have everything from hot dog stands and McDonald’s headquarters to the culinary artistry of Grant Achatz's Alinea.

And they all need photography. Jay Shefsky offers a behind-the-scenes look at a very tasty photo shoot.

TRANSCRIPT

Jay Shefsky: You could easily miss the Michelin-starred restaurant called Elizabeth. No big sign. Barely a sign at all.

But inside, hours before the restaurant opens, a food photographer is creating a tiny little forest floor by the light of a window.

Monica Kass Rogers, photographer: Think about the fairy tales that pop into your mind when you're thinking about the forest. You know, like Hansel and Gretel. It’s all a little spooky, a little creepy but also magical. 

JS: Monica Kass Rogers is going for a fairy tale feeling because that’s the theme of the menu she’s photographing at Elizabeth.

Iliana Regan is the chef and owner of the restaurant. She changes the menu with each season.

Iliana Regan Iliana Regan: Ever since the beginning of Elizabeth restaurant and even before then, people had always compared their dinners to a walk in the woods or fairy tale-esque.

JS: The meal begins with a chef’s treat known as an amuse-bouche. It’s a dish called apple symbolism: an oyster, a granny smith apple granita, which is like an ice—all chilled with liquid nitrogen.

Like any top chef, Iliana is herself an artist. And Monica, like most food photographers, would prefer to do more than simply document Iliana’s art.

She wants to create her own new work in collaboration with the chef.

Monica Kass Rogers MKR: As a photographer you have clients and they bring you in and sometimes the relationship is just that. They know exactly what they want, and they tell you what they want and you just do it. You're done. But every once in a while you get really lucky and you meet somebody who is more open to creating with you. 

JS: Iliana says she welcomes Monica’s creative expression. Today, that’s meant placing a dish in the forest or creating handmade vessels to hold the food.

Monica’s food photos are not limited to high-concept culinary creations. She has done her share of more familiar dishes, but always shot with natural light.

Next, a dish called porridge. It’s a colorful bowl of mostly root vegetables—shot in a bowl made by Monica.

MKR: I love this. She’s created these little tiny circles. She said the inspiration was SpaghettiO’s or Cheerios. But this is the porridge—like she was thinking of the magic porridge pot story.

JS: Monica has spent most of her professional life with food. She’s a longtime food writer for the Chicago Tribune and many other publications. And she loves to cook.

MKR: Everything about creating a meal is satisfying. I mean it’s just like when you are writing a story, there's always this arc. There's a beginning a middle and an end. It's a complete thing. It's a nice package, and it's the same thing when you create a meal. 

JS: The full fairy tale menu at Elizabeth includes 13 courses. The third one Monica will photograph is the dessert, called “bones and hen of the woods:” a maitake mushroom curd served in a real bone with candied reindeer leichen, toasted oats and a maitake mushroom ice cream—photographed on a handmade plate and bowl.

MKR: This I made out of a modeling material to sort of emulate skin.

JS: Monica tells me that what we are seeing today is very different than a whole lot of other food shoots. Most would have large lighting setups and lots more people involved.

MKR: Those shoots pay a whole lot more money, but they're also really, really tightly controlled so as the photographer you really don't get to have any creative input. 

(Monica reviews the day’s images) This is like, just like I said, total magic. 

JS: For "Chicago Tonight," this is Jay Shefsky.

Monica Kass Rogers has a blog called "Lost Recipes Found," featuring rediscovered traditional dishes and more of Monica's delicious photography.

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Find more of Jay's stories about Chicago people and places right here.