Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Melissa and Marc Tantillo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Melissa and Marc , thanks for joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

October 1st of 2020 was the launch date of our business. Date night was always experiencing a new restaurant. We started to realize that many of the restaurant’s Instagram accounts or websites did not do the actual dining experiences we were having justice. There were so many restaurants that had beautiful interiors, wonderful service, and exceptional food but their digital presence was really not portraying that. Most people when they are deciding on where to dine head to Instagram or the web and if the visual experience does not come close to the actual experience you would have as a guest, these amazing restaurants may have been losing business. We decided, with both of our skill sets, that we wanted to help visually bring these restaurants to life and “capture the essence” of the experience you would truly have dined there. As we started our business, we had a no plan B approach, we were all in and really passionate about what we were going to embark on. The name we decided to give our business was Siège. Siège is french for seat. We created a strategy that was built around trust and building relationships. We wanted to pull up a “seat” at their table and them at ours. We would still go into restaurants that we were excited to go to, but we would call ahead and ask if it was ok if we took a few photos of our experience so we could post about it online. Most restaurants were thrilled and said absolutely. But, we knew there needed to be a trust component and our goal was to build relationships not just have a one-time experience and move on. So, we always paid our bill in full, left a 20%+ tip and then gave all of the photos we took to the chef or restauranteur for free so that they would use them on their Instagram accounts or websites. We know this doesn’t sound like much of a business plan, giving away our product for free. But this did help build relationships. Once the chefs and restauranteurs saw what we could do for them it started a conversation. That conversation most times led to a relationship, which led to a job.
Now, this approach was definitely a hustle. It took time to build these relationships, Instagram was not always on our side to help grow our business, and there were weeks that we would not have a job in sight. But then, with time those relationships started to grow, and chefs were starting to talk about us and give other chefs our name, just when we were ready to throw in the towel multiple jobs would come through, but we still can’t say much for Instagram though – ahem.
Another aspect of our business that we really did not foresee was being connectors. As we were out in the industry meeting chefs, restaurateurs, sommeliers, farmers, and owners, we were seeing that a chef needed a wine program or a restaurateur needed to get seasonal produce from a farm or a restaurant needed a coffee program and we began setting up these meetings and connecting these key players in the industry. That was unexpected but a wonderful part of our business as so much of our strategy was relationship-building.
We could have sped up the growth of our business in so many ways. by buying Instagram followers, being a bit pushier with relationships, going after product deals and big chain restaurants, and getting an agent. But we really wanted to pursue everything organically even if it cost us time because in the long run that produced trust. We wanted to work with small, independent restaurants that we believed in and did not want to take on jobs just for money, we wanted to believe in the work we were doing and the restaurants and chefs we were promoting.

Melissa and Marc , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Melissa’s love for food started at an early age. Her grandmother was a passionate cook who grew all of her own vegetables and made everything from scratch. Days together in the kitchen inspired a love for food and family. Melissa has always pursued creativity. Teaching herself photography became a passion, especially when she was able to photograph food. After graduating with honors from Le Cordon Bleu, Melissa began to combine her love for cooking and baking with photography. Slowly her work started to get published and recognized.

Marc really did not have a food history, growing up on fast food and boxed and canned foods. His journey began when he met Melissa and she began sharing her journey with him. They binge-watched Chef’s Table and his eyes were really opened to the amazing world of chefs and restaurants and he began to gain great respect for the work and artistry behind it all. Melissa wanted Marc to experience fine dining at its best and took him to an awarded tasting restaurant. The experience blew him away and from that moment on he was all in. He has learned so much and grown leaps and bounds.

Melissa was doing a lot of freelance work and Marc was working long hours and traveling a lot for his job. When covid hit, it forced everyone to be working from home and it really helped us to realize how much time we were spending apart. Prior to covid, Marc’s job description was already shifting away from the core of what he was hired to do. Always playing around with the idea of starting a food photography business someday, as crazy as it sounds, right in the midst of Covid, they decided to go all in with no plan B. One of the driving forces to this is that the restaurant industry was really struggling as so many industries were. Chefs and restauranteurs were struggling to keep their restaurants afloat and so much of their time was being devoted to finding ways to do so. We wanted to support the industry and help it thrive again in our own way.
So through Covid not only were we taking photos and visually telling the stories of these restaurants, we actually really started helping when and wherever we could. We would work shifts, wash dishes, help clean up, set up, come up with promotions, whatever we could do to assist. We loved it and we loved the relationships we were building.

So many of the chefs and restaurants that we gave our time to during those difficult covid months are now not only clients of ours but close friends of ours. The bulk of our business is storytelling photography. We love to be able to come into a restaurant and give the feeling of being a guest through photography and video. We are working on a documentary for one of the beloved chefs we work for. We are working on a documentary. We are also working in the first restaurant that ever hired us. Melissa is now their pastry chef and Marc the GM. We work very closely with Let’s Talk Womxn an organization that supports women owners in the food and beverage industry, run and founded by Rohini Dey. This started as a small group of women in Chicago and now has over 700 members nationwide.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

We have one goal in mind, which is supporting the independent, creative, and artistic vision of chefs and independent restaurants and bringing their vision to life visually We want to help build their brand, and curate a thriving presence for them. We want to help draw new guests to new experiences within the culinary world, expand their palates, and use food as a point of connection. Food is so much more than just breakfast, lunch, and dinner – we love this quote from Dr. Jessica B Harris, ” Through food, we find that there is more that connects us than separates us.” Food has roots, it gives identity. Cultures are birthed from food, the way it tastes, smells, textures, the colors. Going out to eat is no longer just going to grab a bite, people are looking for an experience. You get to experience, through the chef, someone’s soul, someone’s passion, plated before you. How can you eat someone’s food and not be moved by the culture, the hands that cultivated it, the person who brought it to life? We just want to be a part of bringing it to life visually to entice people to come in and experience what someone has worked so hard to provide, its a gift.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Honesty, word of mouth, and experience helped us build our reputations within the restaurant industry. Building trusting relationships with those that we were working with is the most important aspect of our business. We work really hard to show that we were trustworthy, honest, and professional. We wanted our clients to know we valued them, their time, and their talent and that we were going to use great care in delivering on the work we were doing for them. We wanted our work to speak for itself too, so delivering the quality of work that we promised was really important to us. This led to word of mouth, and chefs giving our name out to their colleagues, which was really important to our reputation and growth. Melissa’s experience also helped build our reputation, knowing that Melissa was a pastry chef and had knowledge and insight into the culinary world, and was a published photographer. became a conversation piece that led to clients. Working closely, taking the time to really listen to the client’s needs and goals, getting to know them, and letting them get to know us really fostered our relationships.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://siegefoodphoto.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/siegefoodphoto

Image Credits
all photos were taken by us