photo by Sarah Derer
Mollie Hayward
Hi, I’m Mollie.
I came to food styling by way of professional kitchens, and that experience still shapes the way I approach everything I make.
I believe the best food images start with understanding the food itself. Years of cooking taught me to recognize the details that make something irresistible: the right sear, the perfect crust, the moment cheese begins to melt, the drip that makes you want to reach into the frame. It also taught me how food behaves. I read a recipe and see where it’s going, anticipate what might go wrong, and find a way forward when it does.
That depth of food knowledge is at the center of my work, whether I’m styling for a commercial shoot, developing a recipe, or bringing hundreds of dishes to life for a cookbook. I’m drawn to projects where creativity and problem-solving happen side by side, where there’s a lot to make, a lot to figure out, and a team of people bringing different ideas to the table.
Recipe development keeps me connected to the reason I started doing this in the first place. Beyond how food looks, I care about how it tastes, how it works, and how someone will experience making and eating it. For me, the visual and culinary sides of the work are inseparable.
I’m based in Chicago and available for projects near and far.
Mobile: 847.687.8761 Email: mollie.hayward@gmail.com
Select clients:
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Aldi, All-Clad, Barilla, Bertolli, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chao, Chef Boyardee, Chicago Magazine, ConAgra, DiGiorno, 3 Farm Sisters, Field Roast, Food Club, Food Network, Foxtrot Market, Frontera Frozen Foods, Grande Cheese, Grubhub, Hardin’s Creek, Hidden Harvest, Hillshire Farms, Holland House, Home Chef, Hormel, Jif, Jimmy Dean, Keebler, Kellogg’s, Kerrygold, Kitchenaid, Kite Hill, Kraft, Late July, Lightlife, Louisiana Fish Fry, Majestic Butter, McCain Foods, Morningstar Farms, Morton Salt, Nestle, Oikos, Oscar Mayer, Palermo’s, Pillsbury, Prairie Fresh, Promised Land Dairy, Qdoba, Quaker, Ragu, Real Dough Pizza Co., Ritual Beverage Co, Sabra, Screamin’ Sicilian, Simple Mills, Simply Spiked, Smithfield, Starbucks, Stella Artois, Stouffer’s, Sunbelle Berries, Tempo Meals, Tropicana, Tyson, Urban Pie, Weber, Ziploc
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Kelly Allison, Joe Bankmann, EE Berger, Clint Blowers, Ryan Bringas, Kate Cauffiel, Sarah Derer, Huge Galdones, Dan Goldberg, Stephen Hamilton, Lucy Hewett, Morgan Ione, Isaiah Jay, Powell Jordano, Jeff Kauck, Jason Little, Kevin Miyazaki, Jason Richardson, Sandy Rosencrans, Kevin Smith, Amy Stallard, Ben Weston, Brian Wetzstein, and Brian Wright