Clay Williams Photo

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Clay Williams Photo

Brooklyn-based photographer specializing in food and drink, events and people.

Clay Williams, the Brooklyn-based photographer and blogger known online as UltraClay, shoots and writes about food, drink, restaurants and events. Food/Work, his ongoing project, takes a behind the scenes look at the process and the people that get food to our plates, from farm to abattoir to markets to the kitchens of restaurants and food trucks around the world. Clay's work has been published in

many fine publications, including The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Edible Brooklyn, Zagat and Serious Eats.

07/25/2026

Pizza-making with chef Mike Fadem at Ops, my latest for Imbibe, in the current issue. Many thanks to mollyhenty for bringing me in for the assignment and to the Ops team for the time and hospitality.

07/24/2026

Tahiirah Habibi (Tahiirah Habibi | Soft Lux / Wine Culture Expert), founder of The Hue Society • Wine & Culture Redefined, host of this weekend’s Wine + Culture Fest. If you’re in or near Philly tomorrow, go check it out.

07/23/2026

Up before dawn with Don Nguyen and the Khói Barbecue crew for American Smoke, my story in the current issue of Food & Wine.

I met Don and Theo through Ruben Santana and Hector Gárate, who credited Don as being an inspiration for them in developing their own concepts. After catching up at events over the years, it was wonderful to see Khoi in its natural environment.

Shout out to Christine Lau and friends for being hand models for me. We arranged the shoot to be the same weekend as Southern Smoke, so everyone was in town. It was a blast.

More American Smoke to come…

07/03/2026

“I know your mom!”

That was the first thing ever said to me. Years ago, when he was first starting out selling barbecue from a park in Queens where my mother worked. She’d see him out tending to the smoker all hours of the morning and check on him to see if he needed anything.

Since then, I’ve followed as he’s built from the streets to a food hall and this week, into a brand new brick and mortar location in Bushwick, which I got to visit yesterday.

It was an honor to be able to include his Dominican take on Texas BBQ in ‘American Smoke’ my story in the current issue of magazine.

The menu at Bark has all the classics, brisket, beef rib, pork ribs, and the rest, but they also make some wonderfully unique options like the housemade smoked longaniza, smoked and fried chicharrones, and ridiculously rich tres golpes sandwich.

Check out the story in Food and Wine (now available online!), and if you’re in Brooklyn, go check out Bark Barbecue at 25 Thames in Bushwick.

07/01/2026

Some moments of zen from my last week in the motherland. Enjoy…

06/28/2026

Somehow only two weeks ago, in Chicago…

06/26/2026

I was only home for six days between the awards and my next trip, but I am happy I managed to be in Brooklyn for the annual Juneteenth Food Festival last week at hosted by . It was a great crowd and a good time, so glad I could make it.

06/25/2026

The latest issue of is here, and with it, my latest story, American Smoke. A cuisine created by Tainos, adapted by Europeans, and mastered by Black hands, it’s the most American food we’ve got. A story two years in the making, I traveled across the country to see how new generations of immigrants and third culture folks continue to create magic with smoke and time.

I get so excited to see my work in print, I ran out and picked up three copies immediately. Thanks and shoutouts below:

Many thanks to all the pitmasters and restaurant workers who put up with me in their spaces. I’ll be posting more about each shoot over the next few weeks, but for now, huge thanks specifically to and Theo, and , Fasicka and Patrick at and Reka and Fik at for agreeing to be included in the story.

Thanks to and Asher for joining on the Carolina adventures last summer, and to for being a source through his book Black Smoke.

Lastly, thank you to for believing in this story right away, giving it a name, and letting me run with it. I couldn’t have done it at all without the support from , , and Tori.

06/23/2026

Happy, happy belated pub day to on her new book, Your Turn to Host!

Years ago,when Amber first told me about her plans to create spaces to teach people how to entertain, I said, “So you’re going to be the Millennial Martha Stewart?”

“B Smith, actually,” was her response. And that’s what’s she’s spent most of the last decade doing.

I’m super proud to have been a part of bringing this book into the world and very excited for everyone to see what I expect will be the first of many tomes from Amber, reminding us all of the importance of time together and taking the stress out of creating communal experiences.

Go buy a copy at !

06/20/2026

Some last looks from the photo booth I set up Monday night following the James Beard Awards. Very many thanks to the team for bringing me in for this. It was an amazing time. I’ll have a few more posts from the evening over the next day or so.

Address

Sunset Park
Brooklyn, NY
11220

Website

http://claywilliamsphoto.com/, http://ultraclay.com/

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