Sebastian Nico has turned two hobbies inspired by time spent in restaurant kitchens into his profession: food photography and crafting kitchen knives. SebtheLensman. SebSteelWorks. Seb.the.Crab. Three Instagram handles. Three stories, fused by food. And kitchen magic.

And flavor, fire, potency and passion.

Nico has transformed his roots in food – if you can, imagine a restaurant kitchen as a playpen and a childhood that saw a rapid transition from cot to culinary adventures – into a lifestyle. Two hobbies that grew organically from this, food photography and playing around with welding, he has now turned into his career focus.

SebtheLensman spotlights his food photography. SebSteelWorks is where he shares pictures and descriptions of his mainly san mai process kitchen knives, san mai being the Japanese way of the knife incorporating super-hard steel, which forms the blade, sandwiched between corrosion-resistant stainless steel. It involves a lot of power-hammering and furnace work and “50 to 100 hours per knife”, creating, crafting, refining.

Read my full article Through the lens and under the knife in the Daily Maverick TGIFood section.