Table Top Inspiration with Suzan Gabrijan

“My idea of perfect day is to come home from the food market with few friends, drink a glass of wine and slowly start cooking the meal together,” says Suzan Gabrijan, the photographer and food stylist from Ljubljana, Slovenia. “I love cooking and creating interesting plates of food and beautiful tablescapes.”

She demonstrated both when we gathered for culinary feast in the apartment she shares with her husband and 2 cats.

Suzan, who has a background in art education, photography and graphic, explored her love for cooking and food styling gradually. It developed with travelling and experiencing different cultures and cusines, as well as with working on photography projects for different clients. One of the projects she is most proud of is cooperation with Ana Roš on documentary series Chef’s Table produced by Netflix. ”It was the first time I had the opportunity to photograph the work of top chef. The food and styling were amazing so I was really able to make the most out of the experience.” And her greatest challenge? The cookbook she prepared for Lidl Slovenia. “It was extremely intense work for 2 months, but I’ve learned a lot and improved my skills and workflow on food photography and styling.”

Together with food styling, Suzan discovered another passion: ceramics. “I have found shiny white plates boring, food on them always looked the same therefore I decided to start creating my own.” She began working with Vesna Vidrih who helped her evolve the craft and allowed her to experiment and develop her style. Now she mostly styles creations on her own plates and serving trays. Her ceramics are unified by a sense of purity and balance, she loves raw surfaces and textures.

Today Gabrijan is confident and creative photographer and cook who delights in experimentation. “With cooking is the same as with photography, it demands the feelings for texture, color and composition. My educational background helps me a lot here.” She is an advocate of preparing healthy food that tastes as well as looks great. “I am inspired by asian minimalism with its simple but strong composition and love working with natural light, these are the things I believe differentiate my work from others.”

For the culinary feast with utopiast, Suzan focused on simple, international menu inspired by her travels. Her menu was playful mixture of contrasts with dishes like Japanese gyoza, which is staple food for Japanese people, traditionally prepared with the whole family and enjoyed together.

She paired it with italian tiramisu, that can be translated from italian as pick me up, but we prefer more romantic translation as a sweet that cheers you up. All was washed down with a whiskey sour cocktail. The drinks heavy notes of whiskey is shared by the table space, that went into the deep musky darks, with a touch of greenery for the super sophisticated feel.

Gyoza recipe:

Ingredients:
200g cabbage
2 garlic cloves
1 spring onion
2cm ginger
30 gyoza skins
150g minced pork meat
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce
dipping sauce:
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp chilli oil

1. Begin by slicing cabbage leaves into small pieces. Finely slice the garlic, the spring onions and the ginger.
2. Add your sliced vegetables and the minced pork meat to a bowl, then mix well with the sesame oil and the soy sauce. Try to use an equal amount of pork as your combined vegetables. Put to one side for a short while to marinate and allow the flavours to infuse.
3. Now we can start making the actual gyoza. With a gyoza skin in the palm of one hand, spoon a small amount of the mix into the centre of the skin. No need to overfill here, simply add an amount approximate to a teaspoon’s worth. Dip your finger in some water and moisten the edge of the skin to make it easy to seal.
4. Fold the filled gyoza skin in half and pinch at the top to seal it. Now start folding over the skin on the side facing you and pleating it together to achieve an effect like a folding fan when it is open. The goal is to achieve a sealed wrap which has the pleated texture on one side, but is flat on the reverse side.
5. When you have made as many as you need, heat up a little cooking oil in a pan and gently place the gyoza in it with the flat side facing down. Cook on a high heat until the bottom of the gyoza become crispy and golden.
6. To finish cooking the gyoza, add a small cup of water to the pan so that the gyoza are half submerged. Place a lid on top of the pan and leave the heat on medium-high.
7. Allow gyoza to steam until the water has evaporated, then leave them cooking on the bottom a little longer to make sure that they become crispy and delicious.
Serve the gyoza on a plate with the crispy side facing up and use a combination of soy sauce, rice vinegar and La-Yu Chilli Oil to make a dipping sauce. Alternatively, you can skip this and use a ready made gyoza sauce.

For a bit funnier and more japanese-like instructions watch this gyoza tutorial.

Styling and photography: Suzan Gabrijan

Written by: Sandra Gubenšek and Katja Butala