Your national cuisine

I loved the colors - warm, inviting and the soft dark and light transitions are nice. I get a little hung up on losing the top of the image - I would either come in just a little bit closer or pull back just slightly and I feel the eye would flow better. I also love the spices in their purest form, I feel like most often - at least here in North America - we see Indian Spices in (gorgeous) piles of ground spices together so it is nice to see them as they are in truest form first.

When it comes to food, tones of brown and neutral can be tricky (and oftentimes boring). This was technically executed well and the food still looks appetizing! Considering doing a bit of touching up on the rough edges of the chocolate bars with small, quick touches of a warm spatula (during or post in PS). Watch the strip of white at the very top edge. Great job (I hope you enjoyed eating it afterwards!)!

I loved the height of this image compared to the other submission (369). It is often tricky to photograph food that have similar color tones (brown/brown/tan) so bringing in another element like height helps support the image. You could also try drizzling the syrup/caramel from the top and photographing as it cascades down (you may have earlier versions of that in your files already?).

I enjoyed the emotions in this image. The wide angle gave a great addition as well. He seems to be enjoying his meal and she is having a great conversation. Often the background people aren't paid much attention to and it can throw off the appeal of an image. Nice job.

The faces of these men drew me in - there was so much joy and life and the variety of textures and colors surrounding them made this a very busy - yet place setting - image. Try shooting in RAW next time you're in a similar scene to bring down the exposure a bit in the foreground (onions and garlic).

This image was a nice sense of place to accompany the food - the act of eating this meal as a community. It drew me in right away even though the image was less about the food directly. Nice job!

I see that you noted presentation was a challenge so I'm going to give you some ideas there: since Brie is a soft cheese it will photograph well at warmer temperatures and will allow for some more movement in the photo. You can try shooting from "eye level" of the cheese as it oozes out from the rind (heating it just a touch for the sake of the photo is an option, too). Additionally, shooting from that level will give you height and more dimension. If you want to keep the knife in, perhaps a shallow depth of field with the knife cutting in the background to the upper right of the image to show movement and to draw the eye from left to right. I'm assuming you were hand holding so you could have allowed a bit more light in at 1/125 and should have still had enough light to keep a sharp image - it looks like the exposure was based off of the white of the rind. The color balance is a little cool so you could try warming it up by shooting near a window on a sunny day (or adjusting in post if shooting RAW).

While the exposure is a little dark what I find most interesting to the contrast of the thick dark leaves of the celery leaves and white rice paper are the red threads (I'm not sure what that ingredient is at first glance but it makes me want to know more!). There is so much movement there. Try shooting straight across at "eye" level to the dish to obtain height of the dish and interest of the red threads . Watch the background by using a shallow depth of field, bump up the exposure slightly and see how you like that composition - since your shutter speed is slow you can brace the camera on the table (or tripod) or beanbag or even another plate to allow for an even slower shutter for more light.

The colors and textures are intriguing. This is slightly overexposed and some detail is lost in the highlights - try bringing the exposure down slightly - and it'll pop even more with the highlights and the colors won't be too saturated.