Ms. Custer taught workshops around the world and, for more than a decade, at the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, N. Y. She retired after her book was published.
In addition to her daughter, she is survived by her sister, Sally Wright; her brother, Robert Borgaard; her stepchildren, Jan Congdon and Paula Held; four step-grandchildren; and one step-great-grandchild. Mr. Custer died in 1998.
“Some stylists have specialties, but Delores could do anything,†said Colin Cooke, a still life and food photographer who shot hundreds of ads with Ms. Custer. However, he said, she shone particularly in margarine. At one point they worked for a company that owned 11 different brands.
“She was the master of the pat,†Mr. Cooke said, “the queen of the dollop, the swirl and the curl.â€
Margarine, he added, can be tricky.
“You need to be one with the margarine,†he said, “because if it’s a bit too cold it won’t swirl. If it’s too warm it will melt. It’s a sculptural job. Delores understood that. She knew how to make it drip or swirl just right. If it was a pat, she might bring a hot knife to it, and wait until she got a drip forming on a corner.â€
Then, at the crucial moment, she would pull back and Mr. Cooke would step in and take the shot.
Mr. Cooke was not with Ms. Custer when she filmed a commercial in the Mexican rainforest for I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! The story line involved the model Fabio, of bodice-ripper book-cover fame, swinging on a vine toward a lady friend offering up the aforementioned product, spread out in enticing swirls on a slice of bread. During the shoot, Ms. Custer blew out the set’s fuses with a hot plate, compromising 60 pounds of soon-to-melt margarine in the makeshift refrigerators.
With typical sang-froid and ingenuity, Ms. Custer wrangled the hero into shape. Fabio looked OK, too.
