Teresa Blackburn: A Food Stylist's Kitchen

Teresa Blackburn is puttering around her 25-year-old home in Germantown in North Nashville, which has become a vibrant sprawling neighborhood in recent years. Teresa is the “go-to” food stylist in town, and if you don’t know exactly what a food stylist does, neither did she at first. A product of the 60’s and 70’s, Teresa is first and foremost an artist: painting and working with textiles and mixed media for years. When living in Knoxville in the '90s, she landed a job with the (then brand new) Food Network. It was there that she started styling food for photos and videos, which was a natural extension of her talents. Today, as the sought-out food stylist in town, Teresa and her team cook and style food for cookbooks, restaurants and food brands — big and small. Utilizing her own beautiful kitchen for food shoots and recipe testing compelled her to make things as moveable, functional and efficient as possible. Open shelves, an island on wheels, storage nooks galore are all things she designed in her home kitchen and had built years ago.

But function does not take precedence over form. Her own art as well as that from friends and her travels adorn the walls and countertops, making her space soulful and warm. It’s where Teresa and partner Wouter spend time working and gathering. After the Nashville 2020 tornado and amidst the pandemic, her kitchen and deck were transformed into a safe gathering space for neighbors, strangers and friends alike, and named “La Petite Café,” a title that, today, is faded but remains painted onto the window.

Teresa regularly receives emails from young women wanting to know how to break into the world of food styling. While Instagram and an iPhone certainly help, it takes lots of experience, a great eye, a cook’s heart and an artist’s touch. Teresa has it in spades.