Whether Hannibal avoids his just desserts on a series-ending cliffhanger, becomes a palette-cleansing entremet for a smaller cable network, or is served up as a binge-able amuse-bouche for a streaming provider, the Lithuanian-born serial killer has had one hell of a run. Not simply content to murder without remorse right under the nose of the FBI, Dr. Lecter has an affinity for serving up human meat to his friends, foes, and victims alike. Much of the program’s strong visual aesthetic is grounded in the monster as an artist who crafts edible objects of beauty that are literally sopping with horrors from within.
And that’s where Janice Poon enters the story. As Hannibal’s food stylist, Poon is responsible for making food look as if it were made of people. As fans know, she also has had to create “fake-out” dishes where Hannibal makes dishes that others think are human-sourced, but are not. She spoke to Hopes&Fears about her work on the show, including how she got from writing a children’s book to making fake cannibal cuisine, when digital enhancement is necessary, what foods make the best substitute for the good doctor’s soylent vert, and what constitutes the process she refers to as the “Hannibalization” of dishes featured on the show. You can read the full interview here. Poon also blogs about her work extensively, and it’s worth checking out if you like to see how the sausage is literally made for the foods on this show.
And if you’d like to join the nearly 75,000 signers petitioning NBC to save your favorite broadcast network villain, you can do so over at Change.org. Or perhaps you’d like to see a foreign distributor pick up Hannibal and film it in international waters, allowing Mads Mikkelsen to serve up actual people to his co-stars. On second thought, it’s probably best to sign the petition to keep it on NBC.