Secrets Behind 'Hunger Games' Food Styling

The Hunger Games movie has already inspired a cookbook and a particularly disgusting food-off, but now, Hunger Games fans can get an inside look into a forgotten focal point of the books: the food.

Food stylist (and Tennessee caterer) Jack White recently revealed some of the secrets behind the movie's most awe-inspiring foodie shots, and his techniques are quite impressive. (This is the man responsible for styling Thomas Keller's dishes in the movie Spanglish, and refilling Chinese takeout containers for Ocean's Thirteen.) White recently told students at his alma mater, University of North Alabama, that The Hunger Games was one of the best movies he's worked on in his long career spanning 75 films. He said, "Food made up a big part of the film and there was more food we actually created than an any other film I've done. It was really fun making up food for the film."

So what were the techniques he used behind the legendary food shots of the movie? Read on:

• Who could forget Peeta's burnt bread that he handed to Katniss? To achieve that charred-crisp look, White had a blowtorch on hand. Before each take, he gave the bread a good scorch and handed it back to Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). 

• The Cornish game hens and fish in the film (smoked in his brother's smoker) were stuffed with aluminum foil and molded to shape.

• The flying fish plate was hoisted up by aluminum foil, too, hovering over a plate of futuristic (and appetizing) rock salt.

• The hardest part of creating food for The Hunger Games? The exravagant meals in the Capitol. But it was also the most fun; said White, "I got to create a world where there was an excess of everything and everything was really beautiful."