10 Food Illustrators to Know: Artists Shaping Contemporary Food Illustration

Food illustration is everywhere—from cookbooks and editorial pages to packaging, advertising, branding, and visual storytelling. Some artists specialize in food and drink, while others bring food into a broader illustration practice. I’ve rounded up 10 illustrators whose distinctive work offers a fascinating look at the many ways food can come to life through illustration.

As a Food & Drink Illustrator myself, I’m always fascinated by the different ways artists interpret food—from ingredients and recipes to food culture, storytelling, and commercial work.

1. Tom Hovey — Food Illustration, TV & Pop Culture

Tom Hovey is best known for bringing food illustration to the screen through The Great British Bake Off. He has created the show’s illustrated graphics since its launch in 2010, producing more than 4,000 illustrated bakes with his team over the past 15 years. His playful, instantly recognizable food illustrations have become an important part of the show’s visual identity, demonstrating how food illustration can extend far beyond the cookbook page and become part of popular culture.

What I love about Tom’s work:

His illustrations show how food can become a character in its own right. A cake or pastry isn't simply something to look at—it becomes part of a visual story and a cultural experience.

Explore Tom’s work → Tom Hovey

2. Marianna Fierro — Food & Beverage, Branding & Commercial

Marianna Fierro has built her practice at the intersection of food, illustration, design, and brand identity. Specializing in food, beverage, and lifestyle brands, she creates illustration systems, packaging, merchandise, campaigns, and visual identities for both emerging and major consumer brands. Her clients include Google, Netflix, Spotify, Nike, Sam’s Club, McDonald’s, and San Pellegrino.

What makes her work especially interesting is the way she combines illustration with brand identity. Her illustrations don't simply decorate a product—they can become part of a recognizable visual world.

What I love about Marianna’s work:

She shows just how far food illustration can go in the commercial world, particularly within grocery, beverage, and consumer brands.

Explore Marianna’s work → Marianna Fierro

3. Lisa Maltby — Food Illustration, Editorial & Packaging

Lisa Maltby specializes in illustration for food and heritage brands, creating work across editorial, publishing, packaging, murals, and brand communication. Her clients include The Guardian, Penguin Random House, National Trust, Hachette Books, and Waitrose Food.

Her work combines a thoughtful, illustrative approach with the practical needs of brands, showing how food illustration can move naturally from a magazine or book into packaging and the wider visual world of a brand.

What I love about Lisa’s work:

Her illustrations have a wonderful sense of place and history, making them particularly well suited to food brands with a story to tell.

Explore Lisa’s work → Lisa Maltby

4. Veronica Dall’Antonia — Food Illustration, Editorial & Food Culture

Veronica Dall’Antonia is a food-focused illustrator whose work explores ingredients, recipes, dishes, and the culture surrounding food. She began her career in editorial illustration, building an international client list that includes The Washington Post, Vogue Business, Glamour, Madame Figaro, Vanity Fair, ELLE à Table, Condé Nast, and The Guardian.

She later launched Bright Food Illustration, a dedicated platform for her food-focused work. Her illustrations show how food can become more than a subject—they can evoke taste, atmosphere, memory, and everyday life.

What I love about Veronica’s work:

She has a wonderful ability to make food feel sensory and alive, while still keeping a strong editorial voice.

Explore Veronica’s work → Veronica Dall'Antonia

5. Holly Wales — Editorial & Commercial Illustration, Food & Drink

Holly Wales is a UK-based illustrator and artist with more than two decades of experience, working across food, lettering, maps, editorial, and commercial illustration. Her bold, colourful style is particularly recognizable for its expressive textures and hand-drawn mark-making.

Her clients include The New York Times, The Guardian, GQ, The Wall Street Journal, Uniqlo, Urban Outfitters, and the V&A. Food and drink are an important part of her broader practice, showing how food illustration can live alongside lettering, lifestyle, culture, and editorial storytelling.

What I love about Holly’s work:

She reminds us that food illustration doesn't have to exist in isolation. Food can be part of a much larger visual language.

Explore Holly’s work → Holly Wales

6. Astrid Weguelin — Food Illustration, Cookbooks & Packaging

Astrid Weguelin draws much of her inspiration from food and the natural world, using hand-rolled ink textures, collage, and digital brushes to create bright, tactile illustrations.

Her food-focused work spans recipe books, editorial projects, packaging, and campaigns. She has collaborated with HarperCollins and the National Trust on fully illustrated recipe books, while her clients also include Fever-Tree, Gosh! Food, McCormick & Co, and The Telegraph.

Her work captures the warmth and pleasure of food while giving recipes and ingredients a distinctly illustrated character.

What I love about Astrid’s work:

She shows how illustration can bring warmth and personality to recipes in a way that photography can't always achieve.

Explore Astrid’s work → Astrid Weguelin

7. Carina Lindmeier — Illustration, Food, Lifestyle & Commercial

Carina Lindmeier works across contemporary illustration, lifestyle, and commercial projects, with food appearing as an important part of her visual language. Her distinctive digital style combines vivid colours, expressive patterns, layered textures, and a handmade feel.

Her past clients include Adobe, Refinery29, Bombay Sapphire, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Red Bull Media House. Her work is a compelling example of how food can connect naturally with lifestyle, people, and broader commercial storytelling.

What I love about Carina’s work:

Her illustrations show how food can become part of a larger lifestyle story rather than standing alone as the subject.

Explore Carina’s work → Carina Lindmeier

8. Alice Oehr — Illustration & Design, Food, Books & Products

Alice Oehr is an artist and designer whose colourful practice brings together food, pattern, collage, and drawing. Based in Melbourne, she has developed an extensive body of food-related work across books, editorial illustration, campaigns, products, and design. Her published work includes Recipes with Friends, Artichoke to Zucchini, Off to the Market, and Pickles, Illustrated, while her commercial work has appeared on textiles, homewares, installations, and other products.

Her career is a wonderful example of how a personal fascination with food can grow into a distinctive and wide-ranging creative practice.

What I love about Alice’s work:

I love how naturally her personal food projects connect with publishing, products, and commercial work.

Explore Alice’s work → Alice Oehr

9. Anna Farba — Illustration, Food, Nature & Packaging

Anna Farba is a freelance illustrator specializing in hand-painted watercolor artwork for books, packaging, and nature-inspired surface design. While her practice extends beyond food, her botanical and ingredient-focused imagery offers another perspective on the relationship between illustration, nature, and the products we consume.

Her work for packaging and publishing demonstrates how detailed, organic illustration can give everyday products a distinctive visual identity.

What I love about Anna’s work:

Her delicate botanical approach reminds us that food illustration can begin with the ingredients themselves—the plants, herbs, fruits, and natural elements behind what we eat.

Explore Anna’s work → Anna Farba

10. Yoko Baum — Food & Drink Illustration, Editorial & Publishing

Yoko Baum is a Portland, Oregon-based Food & Drink Illustrator creating vibrant, playful illustrations inspired by everyday food, ingredients, and food culture. Her distinctive style combines nostalgic, retro influences with a fresh, contemporary feel, bringing the visual character of familiar foods, dishes, and pantry staples to life.

Her work spans editorial, publishing, branding, packaging, and advertising, with clients including EATER, Yelp, and Waitrose. Her food-focused illustrations also extend to cookbooks, puzzles, merchandise, and consumer products.

Yoko's approach to food illustration:

"I’m especially interested in finding the visual character in everyday food—ingredients, dishes, and small details that are part of our daily lives. I love using illustration to turn those familiar things into a visual language that can help brands, publications, and organizations communicate with people in a memorable and approachable way."

Explore Yoko’s work → Yoko Baum

What These Illustrators Show Us About Contemporary Food Illustration

Looking at these 10 illustrators together, one thing becomes clear: contemporary food illustration is far more diverse than a single style or category.

Food illustration can tell stories on television, bring a cookbook to life, shape the identity of a grocery brand, add personality to packaging, explore food culture through editorial work, or turn a personal fascination with ingredients into books and products.

Some artists make food the central focus of their practice, while others weave it into a broader visual language. What connects them is the ability to make something familiar—an ingredient, a dish, a recipe, or a meal—feel fresh, memorable, and full of character.

For me, that is what makes contemporary food illustration so exciting: there are still so many ways to interpret something as universal as food.

About the Artist

Hi, I’m Yoko Baum. I’m a Food & Lifestyle Illustrator dedicated to bringing culinary stories to life through my bold, vibrant, and iterative process. From editorial features to cookbook projects, I specialize in creating warm, inviting visuals that celebrate the joy of food and the beauty of everyone's everyday moments.

🌿 Based in Portland, Oregon | Available for commissions worldwide

September, 1, 2026