At one end of Birmingham's sprawling, new Time Inc. Food Studios, in a kitchen bathed by the morning light, recipe developer Karen Rankin slices chocolate ganache squares that she is testing for a new cookbook by celebrity chef Ryan Scott.

In the nearby video studio, videographer Caleb Zorn zooms in for a tight shot as food stylist Nicole McLaughlin prepares stuffed Granny Smith apples for an online how-to video for Health magazine.

And just around the corner, Iain Bagwell, the directory of photography, huddles with a small team of stylists and photographers as they go over the images from a photo shoot for a Cooking Light recipe makeover.

This year, the Time Inc. Food Studios crew will test, develop, publish and photograph more than 4,000 recipes -- along with creating another 1,500-plus food videos -- for 11 different Time Inc. brands.

Those brands include not only the traditional Birmingham publications Southern Living, Cooking Light and Coastal Living, but also Real Simple, People, InStyle, Health, Essence, MyRecipes.com, Sunset and Time Inc. Books.

"It's definitely a culture shift because we are not just the Southern Living kitchen anymore, or the Cooking Light kitchen," Allison Lowery, director of the Time Inc. Food Studios, says. "We are still the Southern Living kitchen to that consumer base . . . but the kitchens are also for Real Simple, they are for Essence, they are for all of the brands.

"When we go to New York and we meet with our brand clients, I always tell them every brand is treated equally in the Food Studios," Lowery adds. "Just because Southern Living is here doesn't mean Southern Living gets all of our best people or all of our best time. We really have to give every brand our all."

A creative team that includes 12 test kitchen professionals, 14 food and prep stylists, five photographers and about a dozen others moved into the Food Studios in mid-November.

The 40,000-square-foot space occupies the previously vacant fifth floor of Time Inc.'s Birmingham campus on Old Montgomery Highway in Homewood.

Included within that space are 28 test kitchens, two demo kitchens, 13 photography studios, two video studios and a private dining room.

The studios also have the facilities to live-steam cooking demos and chef and author interviews, and they may be used as an event space for cooking classes, private parties and benefits, such as a recent dinner for Birmingham's Jones Valley Teaching Farm.

While sleek and modern and open -- with natural light streaming in from every direction -- the space is also simple and efficient.

"The important thing to know about our kitchens is they are not commercial-grade kitchens," Lowery says. "They are like home kitchens because the hallmark of what we do is we make recipes that people can make at home."

Food stylist Nicole McLaughlin and videographer Caleb Zorn film a video demonstrating how to prepare stuffed baked apples at the Time Inc. Food Studios. (Tamika Moore/tmoore@al.com)

'Very collaborative'

Before becoming director of the Time Inc. Food Studios, Lowery was executive digital editor at Cooking Light for six years, and prior to that, managing editor and food editor at Oxmoor House, a division of Time Inc. Books.

Like Lowery, several of the photographers, stylists and test kitchen professionals at the Food Studios were already working in Birmingham, but others have come here from New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Atlanta, Denver and London.

"A lot of them had positions here, but everyone had to apply for their jobs again and get repositioned here," Lowery says. "But in the last five years, we've been recruiting a lot of people from New York and different cities, so it's a pretty diverse staff."

While recipe developers such as Rankin previously worked for one Time Inc. brand -- in her case, it was Oxmoor House -- these days, she might cook for Coastal Living magazine one day and Real Simple the next.

"It is very collaborative, very cooperative." Rankin says. "I've learned more by being able to work with different people from the different brands. We were so secluded back when we were separate. Now, we get to collaborate with people who have worked with different brands and who have different frames of reference."

Within that environment, chefs such as Robby Melvin -- who came to the Food Studios after more than two years as the test kitchen director at Southern Living -- are also learning to broaden their skill sets, not only developing recipes but also creating content.

Melvin recently shot a selfie video in which he shares a handy tip that he uses when he make biscuits. The trick is to freeze the butter and shave it into the flour using a box grater, and his video likely will show up on MyRecipes.com.

"We have to re-imagine what content can be," Mike Grady, supervising producer of Time Inc.'s video division, says. "Maybe it's 'How to cook pancetta like a chef,' or Robby's would be, 'The secret to classic Southern biscuits.'

"As we grow the Food Studios, the type of content we are able to provide outside of the pages of the magazine also can continue to grow," Grady adds.

"Over the next few months, there is going to be a big change in the types of content that we are able to start providing our brands with that we haven't done before."

Recipe tester and developer Karen Rankin, standing, presents some chocolate ganache desserts during a taste-testing at the Time Inc. Food Studios. The recipes will appear in an upcoming cookbook. (Tamika Moore/tmoore@al.com)

'A huge commitment'

That a media giant like Time Inc. chose to locate the Food Studios in Birmingham speaks volumes about the available talent here, Lowery says, as well as it does about the Magic City's growing reputation as one of top food cities in America.

"It was a big investment for Time Inc. to move everything here," she says. "Lots of brands wanted it to be in New York, of course, but we just have the proven track record on food. We have the food talent down here.

"They really believe in the Birmingham campus as a food hub, and it doesn't hurt that Birmingham is really becoming known as a great food city."

One of those chefs who have helped put Birmingham on the culinary map is John Hall, who grew up here but went to New York to hone his skills at such restaurants as Gramercy Tavern, Per Se and Momofuku. Hall came home a couple of years ago to open Post Office Pies pizza restaurant in Avondale.

Hall was one of a who's who of local chefs -- including Highlands Bar and Grill and Bottega chef and owner Frank Stitt, along with Highlands chef de cuisine Zack Redes and Bottega chef de cuisine Paul Yeck; Brandon Cain of Saw's Soul Kitchen and the forthcoming Roots & Revelry; and Rob McDaniel of SpringHouse in Alexander City -- who cooked for Southern Living 50th anniversary celebration at the Food Studios this past week.

The Food Studios are a natural complement to what's happening on the food and restaurant scene in Birmingham, Hall says. In fact, one of his business partners, Saw's BBQ founder and Post Office Pies co-owner Mike Wilson, is an alum of the Cooking Light test kitchen.

"I think it's a huge commitment that (Time Inc.) took in Birmingham," Hall says. "I think they're saying that there is definitely a future here, or they wouldn't have spent the money that they did on this beautiful facility. So I think a lot of people are investing in Birmingham. That's what I think of when I see this."

Chef John Hall of Post Office Pies plates smoked trout, sauce gribiche, watercress and caviar on grilled sourdough at Southern Living's 50th anniversary party at the Time Inc.Food Studios. (Tamika Moore/tmoore@al.com)

'Living a dream'

Bagwell, the director of photography, came here from Atlanta to work for Oxmoor House in 2014 before transitioning into his current role at the Food Studios.

"I've always felt like I'm living a dream in a kind of way, because it doesn't feel like you're working most of the time," Bagwell says. "It's certainly not easy, but at the same time, we're doing something that, for the most part, all of us love doing."

And then there are the fringe benefits.

Just ask associate video producer Ryan Moriarty, who interned at a local TV station before he came to work at the Food Studios.

"I realized I didn't want to be in news and wanted to be in a more creative-type field," Moriarty says. "Now I get to eat food and make it pretty all day."