Meet Stephanie Chen | Food Photographer & Baker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephanie Chen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
As I delved further into my creative pursuits and started working with people, I came to find that the main driving factor behind what I do has always been connection. Baking and photography both started as hobbies and eventually became ways to connect with others, whether it’s helping small food businesses make their products shine or relating to others through a shared love of a particular cultural flavor profile.

In terms of photography, I began and still do use it as a way to pay homage and thank business owners for the kindness and generosity they bestowed upon me. With baking, I loved finding fun ways to incorporate familiar Asian ingredients in somewhat unexpected ways, sparking conversations and curiosity with friends and strangers alike.

Over time, both of these forms of connection developed into budding friendships that have lasted years, and it’s those relationships that led me to realize how important community is to me. This connection was not only with individual businesses and food enthusiasts, but also with the food community at large, which is so much more intertwined than I realized! Every person that I’ve encountered with in the food space has strengthened the sense of community in San Diego with their consistent love and support for one another, making this city such a great place to be beyond our weather (I’m not here to knock that sunshine though!).

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I think what’s different about me is that you typically won’t find my work in coveted, high-end restaurants around town or in big magazines. You’ll find it in the in-between in the pop-up scene that has grown exponentially in San Diego, representing the chefs who work in restaurants during the day and continue to play around during their off hours. What I’ve noticed about these chefs is that a number of them yearn for creative expression and to put their ideas forth outside of a restaurant that has a fixed menu that they may not have the privilege to be able to contribute their ideas towards. This is where pop-ups come in, allowing them to exercise their creative freedom without having to fully dive into having their own brick-and-mortar space to do so. And that’s where you’ll find me! I love dabbling into the fun food concepts that these chefs have to offer for just one night and even more so, I love to capture that through photos to highlight this aspect of San Diego that people may not be aware of or familiar with. I believe that these hardworking people deserve just as much recognition as award-winning chefs as these are the people who collectively represent the backbone of the restaurant industry and we wouldn’t have this city’s culinary recognition without them.

Having become further ingrained in this food community (though I still consider myself to be “industry adjacent” at best), what I’m most proud of is the growth in my photography and my baking that enables me to pay it forward to others. Whether it’s filling a need to take photos when that’s the last thing on a small business owner’s mind, selling my baked goods to donate all the proceeds to a local non-profit organization, or being an intermediary while networking for the benefit of others, I’ve loved serving the San Diego community and having that form of community care spread. This has enabled me to not only further connect with this city and its people, but also has helped to encourage others to do so as well and assuring them that San Diego is a welcoming place to be, not an intimidating one.

I could say that what got me to where I am today is simply through taking classes and practicing at home, but that’s only a small piece of my journey. When I got my first DSLR camera, I pushed myself to go to events and spaces alone and bring my camera along with me despite not knowing anyone there and feeling like just another influencer trying to be unnecessarily too much. As someone who felt more introverted at the time, it was a challenge to not only publicly practice a growing hobby, but also try to fit into spaces I felt I had no right to be in. However, whenever I would go to these events, I would assure myself that my desire to improve on my photography skills outweighed any awkwardness I felt with being there. And over time, the camera around my neck became a conversation starter as well as a way for me to build a social circle of people to work alongside with who were also trying to hone their own craft, mainly in cooking or baking. Funny enough, one of the first people I worked with was Ricardo and Katherine of Pixan (formerly Flavor.Lab), who asked me to help take photos for their own interview for Shoutout Socal after we met at a Cops & Robbers pop-up. So things have really come full circle! Since then, I’ve been able to photograph for small business owners and get to know them as individuals, which has been so fulfilling as someone who enjoys getting to know people and their own experiences that brought them to where they are today.

The friends I made along the way, in turn, eventually encouraged me to put myself out there with my baked goods, a longstanding hobby I hadn’t put to as much use aside from occasionally baking for a friend’s birthday. However, I liked to scratch the itch of experimenting with flavor combinations and the process of that was always a fun one. I wound up selling my baked goods from Provecho! Coffee Co. after Gerardo offered to have them sold from his shop, which was a casual monthly endeavor for a little while. That eventually led to pop-ups with Tambayan, a summer pop-up with YayItzel, yearly pie pop-ups with Matcha y Miel, annual Lunar New Year celebrations with AYI, and, more recently, a pop-up with 25+ of San Diego’s best bakers to donate all proceeds to Border Angels to help migrants and refugees.
All of these opportunities felt like such an accomplishment, but what really sat in the back of my brain was “Why me? What makes me deserving to be here, to have these opportunities afforded to me?” As someone with no formal training in baking or photography, I didn’t have the experience on paper to give myself the title of photographer or baker. However, upon reflection, every time I went to a pop-up event, I was welcomed without hesitation whether I knew the people there or not and oftentimes, they wouldn’t even have an inkling of what my background or experience was. If they felt that I deserved a seat at their table, who was I to tell them who is considered “worthy” in their eyes? With this realization, I came to find that there’s no one way to be a participant in these spaces as all walks of life are embraced, which is something I’ve grown to appreciate so much. I’ve learned that my presence, my friendship, and my support are more than enough to make me worthy of occupying any of these spaces and I am so grateful to be amongst people who remind me of that. Everyone has a place here in these 3rd spaces and holds much more importance than you realize. If that’s the case for me, then I want others to know that they are no exception!

Fun fact: Being a photographer or baker is not my day job! My brand, ohmotherfudger, has always been for the sake of exercising my creative muscle and wanting to have fun with it without being defined by a particular medium. I think it’s assumed that once you start something, the next step up is to commodify it to make money because we’ve been conditioned to believe that if we do what we love, we don’t have to work a day in our lives. And for some, that is true, and I’m not denying that. However, for a number of people who are just figuring it out as they go, it’s ok to indulge in a hobby and keep it at that without the need to make it more than what it is. I may have garnered various work opportunities with both baking and photography, but at the core of it, I created my brand purely because I’ve always wanted one, and I’m here to represent the creatives who want nothing more than to simply create.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is going to sound VERY Type A of me, but when a friend of mine visited from Toronto for the first time, I created an Excel spreadsheet of all the places I thought would be good to hit up or at least consider going to if we were in a particular area.

In addition to that, I came to find it was a common struggle for people to discover what pop-ups are going on around town each week. So, I took it upon myself to create a public Google calendar to document the pop-up announcements I happen to come across and added the link to my Instagram for anyone to reference (I try to keep it up to date as best as I can)!

Here’s the places/events I’ve come to love or would recommend checking out while in San Diego!

Small Business Who Run Pop-Ups (Regularly or On Occasion, I recommend checking out their respective Instagram accounts for more info!):
-Hell Yeah! Helena
-SD Chao Club
-JCubed Bread
-Drink Este
-Kaphe Muna
-One of One Community
-Best Friends Bagels
-Binondo
-Monchourie
-Ming Oun’s Kitchen
-Beautiful Flower Foods
-Bica Industry Nights
-Bincho Taco
-Pukshiet
-The Clovery
-Marjan

Breakfast/Brunch:
-Atelier Manna
-Wildland All Day
-Between Us
-Bica

Lunch:
-Board & Brew
-Fat Boy Deli & Spirits
-Ed Fernandez Restaurant Bierrieria
-Wavy Burger/Friends of Friends
-8th & B Poke
-Thai Test Kitchen
-Fish Guts

Dinner:
-Azuki Sushi
-Animae
-Callie
-Cellar Hand
-The Friendly
-Mabel’s Gone Fishing
-Pho Hoa
-Tribute Pizza
-Little Victory Wine Bar
-Mekong Lao & Thai
-Sang Dao Restaurant
-Wolf in the Woods
-Kingfisher
-Shan Xi Magic Kitchen
-El Salvadoreno
-Cesarina
-EE Nami

Drinks
-Youngblood
-Happy Medium
-Kindred
-Clos Wine Shop
-Raised By Wolves
-Seek Beer Co
-Nolita Hall
Stores
-Sew Loka
-Joon Shoppe
-Home Ec & Best Bud
-AYI
-PARU
-Libelula Bookstore

Coffee Shops:
-Provecho! Coffee Co
-Cafeina Cafe
-Fuzz Coffee
-Necessity Coffee
-Mnemonic Coffee
-Rikka Fika
-Longplay HiFi
-Morning Dew
-Keep Coffee

Bakeries/Dessert Spots:
-Relic Bakery
-Michi Michi
-Azucar
-Sunday Ice Cream
-Stella Jean’s
-Wayfarer Bread & Pastry
-The Cakery
-An’s Dry Cleaning

Places:
-Chicano Park
-Powerhouse Park
-Kate Sessions
-Balboa Park
-San Diego Zoo
-Sunset Cliffs
-La Jolla Shores
-Bayview Park
-Museum of Contemporary Art (MCASD)
-Torrey Pines State Park

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Given that there are so many people who have impacted and encouraged me along my creative journey, it’s hard to narrow down! I am immensely grateful to the baking community that has allowed me to feel a sense of belonging despite only being a home baker because it’s not what was on our resumes that brought us together, but rather our shared love for the craft of baking. Since meeting most of these bakers from Home Ec’s La Tiendita events, we’ve developed a network of predominantly female bakers that are always helping one another or attending each other’s events, which it feels like so wholesome to be part of!

In terms of photography, I can’t help but credit Charlie Knowles and Manny Da Luz (Bica), who I discovered through their days of running Cops & Robbers pop-ups alongside Gerardo Ledesma (Provecho! Coffee Co.) and Jackie Naranjo (Matcha y Miel), since their events gave me the space to practice photography freely when I was still learning and they, Gerardo, and Jackie all supported my growth from the moment we met. Their events also garnered so much love and support from the food community, whom I was able to further connect and broaden my network of creative friends who do so many amazing things in this city!

I’m also grateful to have met food photographer Gabe Halvor and business owner Andrew Benevides (Cafeina Cafe), who provided avenues for me to practice as a budding photographer when I first started, showed me the ropes, and helped give me advice from both a photography and a business perspective.

And, of course, I have to give thanks to all my friends who believed in my passions, even more than I did at times, and were excited to see where I would take them. Without such a loving support system, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to accept the opportunities I’ve been given!

Instagram: https://instagram.com/ohmotherfudger

Image Credits
Nitti Paguio (for Personal Photo provided)