The Film Burger: A Film Soup by Tomaso Mannu aka Mensch Chef

We often talk about "cooking" film soup – but what happens when an actual chef cooks one?

In this interview, we meet Tomaso Mannu, aka Mensch Chef, a multipassionate food consultant, plant-based recipe creator, and natural remedy innovator whose curiosity also extends into the world of analogue photography. He blends his culinary imagination with photographic experiments, and shares with us a very special film soup, The Film Burger.

Hi Tomaso, welcome to Lomography Magazine! Tell us a little about yourself.

I'm Tomaso, a multipassionate chef who believes the most powerful creativity happens when we let our different worlds collide. At Mensch Chef, I share my cooking world, natural remedies, and lifestyle, but more deeply I help hands-on creators turn their craft into freedom and income. All of this comes from what I've learned in the past years: being multipassionate is a superpower.

While most people think it's scattered energy, I can only see it as finding unexpected connections between the things you love. That's where your uniqueness shines!

This film soup project perfectly captures what I call being your "Professional Self", that space where the intersection between your expertise and passions becomes a playground for new discoveries. We don't have to pick a label or a title to explore how each craft can deepen the others.

How long have you been shooting film and what drew you to it?

I've been styling and shooting food photography at work for a long time, either solo or with a team, but went deeper into photography itself in 2022 when I started sharing my work online.

Even then I had to pick a lane, and video was the skill I had to deepen, only occasionally shooting outside of the kitchen studio. Film has been a recent salvation. I picked up an SLR, a rangefinder, and a TLR to see where I felt most at home.

Big cliché, but it was a conscious choice to force me to slow down in this world obsessed with speed. Every frame costs something. Every shot requires intention. So it’s a craft that needs lots of care, and I love the learning curve coming from digital.

For someone neurodivergent like me, constantly creating and working with screens, analogue crafts and habits have become essential medicines I pick from my cabinet. I'm enjoying street portraiture a lot, and shooting in the streets. Needless to say, I am attracted to crafts, artisans, people hands-on in their work, as that's what I relate to.

I had my street food business, then worked in markets before restaurants, and it's where I navigate the most. But families and kids play an important role since I've been travelling on my own for more than half of my life; these dynamics are part of some nostalgia I often ponder about. I'm now incorporating photography into my channel because my audience loves to see it and join me in the journey of new learning and discoveries.

You can see on my Instagram how the instant Lomo has recently been used to shoot the profile pictures of my recipes, and I will carry on doing that, I am loving it. It captures something raw and aligns perfectly with my philosophy. You get one try. What you get is what you get, and that's what I want to show people.

[It’s about] living in peace with something that isn't over-polished. Like any craft, it can be mastered, and with time I'm sure it will look fantastic. In a space filled with endless retakes and digital perfection, slightly blurred, honest moments are my act of rebellion. That’s essentially what drew me into film – photos connecting in a way that video or writing could never.

Can you tell us about The Film Burger concept behind this film soup?

The Film Burger brings together two recipes from my recently released book The Mindful Kitchen Map: pickles and zero-waste ketchup (plus homemade pelati and homemade veg stock, so four recipes from the book). It's all about seeing the interaction between food and photography through a different lens, not just the usual food photography, especially for my audience who might not be super familiar with film soups – I wasn’t [either.] ☺

But I am all about exploring what happens when we approach creativity with a beginner's mind – a mindset I've wanted to put myself in since the start of the year. When you make your own pickles, your own ketchup, you reclaim power over what nourishes you. When you experiment with film soups, you reclaim power over how you see and capture the world. Both require the same thing: trusting your hands, embracing the process, and finding beauty in transformation. It’s all about awakening the creator power within.

The burger works conceptually because assembly matters. How do these elements come together? What new flavors emerge? What visual language gets created when food literally transforms the film? [It’s about] being comfortable and excited about not knowing how it will turn out. Trying new things and giving them logical structure through your own unique stories, background, and experiences. Plus I wanted something to eat while looking at the photos, I couldn’t help it.

Please walk us through your process for this Film Soup.

I started by shooting two rolls of Lomography Color Negative ISO 100 around Thailand, where I'm based. I focused on what I always do: real people, workers, moments of everyday life – in the place where I walk my dog, do my shopping and usual routine. These are the humans whose hands create the world and make everything run. That's where my eyes go all the time. Where I spend my days.

Then came the alchemy. The pickles are my version of the infamous living brine that preserves and transforms, while the zero-waste ketchup is made from vegetable scraps that most people throw away, plus homemade pelati, salt, and my bouillon – recipes I am very proud of. They are respectively in the Cabinet section and in the Bin, the recovery center. My book is divided into six zones: it's a neurodivergent approach for people who never saw the kitchen as a hub or as a place to find clarity, and every zone relates to an area of our brain. It’s fun – you should check it out!

Then the films went into the liquids for 24 hours (that's what I read and what I did). Then I put them in rice and in a dehydrator at 20°C for two days. Finally, I developed them myself.

What do you think of the outcome of this film soup?

The results were weird, and while some didn't come out as expected, some were underexposed, a few had character and are definitely down my alley. I'll definitely give it another go with a different film ISO, as I think that played a big part. The pickle brine created these organic bluish and green acidic patterns, while the ketchup soup left warmer, earthier textures that reminded me of soil and dirt.

The medium became part of the message and you can definitely distinguish which is which. Similarly to what I explore in the book, every act of creation can be a practice of something bigger when grounded in mindfulness and intention. I just have to experiment more!

What's next for your film soup experiments?

The Mindful Kitchen Map contains dozens of recipes, each with its own personality and potential for visual transformation. I'm curious about ferments specifically though, what would kimchi juice do to black and white film? What about my Rejuvelac? The beautiful thing about being so deep into many fields is that you never run out of intersections to explore. I'm building a cohesive body of work, and the soups can definitely have a place in what I'm doing with photography. Let's see what I will have produced by the end of this year, so follow mensch.chef and see where this goes.

Any advice for other multipassionate creators like you?

Yes. I do. Stop apologizing for your curiosity. The world needs people who can see connections others miss. Your "scattered" interests are your superpower. In a world where AI is bringing a new dimension to creation, let your humanity shine. And if those are your imperfections, let them be – they're unique and relatable. That's what I am craving.

But ultimately, start where you are. Use what you have. Let one craft inform another. Don't wait until you're "expert enough" in something to start experimenting. Some of the most beautiful discoveries happen in that space between knowing and not knowing. Every master was once a beginner who just refused to give up, and the future belongs to those who take ownership of their craft, their health, and their creative expression. So consume less and create more!

To learn more about the neurodivergent kitchen approach and zero-waste recipes that inspired this film soup project, check out Tomaso's new book, The Mindful Kitchen Map.

Interested in film soups and other experimental techniques? Head to our LomoSchool section or browse through inspiring recipes from our Community members!

written by melissaperitore on 2025-10-05 #culture #people #film-soup #lomo-instant-wide #tomaso-mannu #mensch-chef Share Article