I’ve photographed the food at the mighty Allianz Stadium numerous times, and the size of the catering operation still amazes me. This visit was for the Autumn/Winter 2026 menu, with everything from conference food and carefully plated dishes to the Christmas banquet.
For the food photographs, I was working in the relaxed surroundings of one of the main hospitality suites. Return on a match day and it’s a completely different story. This time, I also wanted to photograph the chefs, both working in the kitchen and in some relaxed portraits.
From conference food to individual plates
There was plenty of variety to photograph. Bowls and sharing dishes called for wider views of the spread, alongside closer photographs of individual dishes. Together, they show the range of food on offer and the care given to its presentation.
The individual plates brought a different pace to the shoot. There’s something particularly satisfying about photographing the final addition of sauce: the food is ready, but there’s still a little movement in the frame. It also brings a hint of the work involved into the finished photograph.
The desserts deserved a closer look too. The neat layers of one and the sculpted red rose of another gave me very different shapes and colours to work with. Keeping the surroundings simple lets those details do the work.
Christmas on the table
The Christmas banquet brought another change of scale, with roast meat, side dishes and festive greenery filling the frame. Moving between a single dessert and a spread like this is part of what makes these food shoots so varied.
The scale behind the food
The stadium’s published figures put some numbers to the wider catering operation: up to 280 chefs across 38 kitchens, serving up to 14,000 hospitality covers. Even having worked here numerous times, I find that difficult to get my head around.
I get to concentrate on one dish in the relative calm of a hospitality suite. The chefs have to take that care and attention into match-day service on a scale I’ve never seen anywhere else. I honestly don’t know how they pull it all together, but they clearly do.
Photographing the chefs as well as the dishes
I was keen to spend some time photographing the kitchen work during this menu shoot. The concentration, the finishing touches and the chefs working alongside one another all deserved a place in the set. So did the lighter moments between plates.
For the seated portraits, the setting changes to the hospitality suite. These photographs give a different view of the people involved, away from the preparation and with a little more room for their personalities to come through.
I came to photograph the Autumn/Winter menu, but I’m pleased the finished set also makes space for the people preparing it. The dishes deserve the attention, and so do the chefs who make this enormous operation work.
For more examples of my work with restaurants, hotels and hospitality venues, explore my food photography. Please get in touch to discuss photography for your menu, kitchen or team.
