The Food and Beverage Industry is in Good Hands with a Chicago Hand Model Who Stumbled into the Ultra-Specific Profession

Get more recipes, food news, and stories at wttw.com/food or by signing up for our Deep Dish newsletter. 
Have a food story or recommendation? Email us at [email protected].

When Nick DiBona first opened the email offering him the chance to be a hand model for a SodaStream advertisement, he thought it was a scam.

“My friend had to nudge me, like ‘Hey, someone's reaching out to you about something,’” DiBona says. “I said, ‘Oh, I thought that was a spam email.’”

The opportunity to be in an advertisement had simply landed on his lap – or, rather, in the palm of his hand. (Buckle up, there are more hand puns coming.) And it’s not the first time fate has stepped in for DiBona. The Oak Park native, who has lived in Chicago for all of his adult life, has an eclectic resume for someone who now specializes in food and beverage advertisement shoots. DiBona, 44, was working on the other side of the ad world as a “desk person at a nine-to-five job.” Then the fallout from the Great Recession hit and he was laid off. But he adapted, and a friend in the wine business connected him to a retail boutique store that needed help.

“They hired me with little to no knowledge, besides being an Italian guy. It’s in my blood, I guess,” DiBona jokes. “I seem to land in a lot of opportunities.”

From there, he became a wine buyer, and then got into the restaurant industry and discovered he had a natural talent for wine and fine dining bartending. He worked at restaurants all over the city, including at Monteverde when it first opened, as well as Maple and Ash, Acanto, and Parson’s Chicken and Fish. But when yet another economic downturn hit – this one caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – DiBona once again had to pivot. “Now, we’re figuring out new ways to do things,” he says of service industry workers. Currently, he’s bartending at Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse. So, in 2022, once he realized that the email in his inbox looking for a hand model with bartending skills was definitely not a scam, he happily seized the moment with both hands (You were warned).

During that first shoot with SodaStream, they asked him to showcase some bartending skills, like mixing cocktails, shaking a cocktail shaker, and garnishing drinks. “I’m like, ‘No problem, I can do that with my eyes closed,’” DiBona says. As it turned out, the people on set loved him, because he could accomplish each shot in one or two takes. 

“They gave me the actual video, and it was beautiful,” he says. “I was like, ‘I think I got something here.”

So what kind of work does a hand model specializing in the food and beverage industry do, exactly? After the SodaStream ad, DiBona got his hands on a talent agent. That led him to a Miller Lite ad, a kitty litter ad, and a campaign for Weber grills. The Weber shoot lasted eight days at various locations around the Chicago area, and it was “the coolest thing I’ve ever done,” DiBona says. There were professional chefs and food stylists on set with a massive crew. Plus, “I am the ‘talent’ so’ they gave me a chair to sit on,” he says, sounding gobsmacked. 

DiBona also recently shot an ad for the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, in which he was asked to hold out half of a large wheel of cheese. (One of the tricks of the trade? They gave him an elbow brace so his arm didn’t get tired.) Once again, DiBona was a hit on set. “They’re so happy with my work, they’re like, can you just be the hands of cheese for Wisconsin?” he says.

Of course, not just any old Joe off the streets of Chicago has what it takes to be a hand model. There must be a certain je ne sais quoi about the hands in question that folks in the food and beverage industry hire to market their products.

“I have decent paws,” DiBona says with a laugh. But perfect paws? “I guess they are nice, but I used to play basketball so I have like broken digits. They’re also bartender hands. There might be lime juice and cuts and stuff on them…Once I got the SodaStream gig, I figured I better clean up my money makers.”

Since his unexpected, niche career turn, DiBona now takes good care of his hands. He says the clients usually provide an on-set manicurist for the day of filming. But he also “drinks water like a crazy person,” and wears gloves and moisturizer at night. “My go-to is this thing called Egyptian Magic. I think Elizabeth Taylor used to use it back in the day,” he says.

Now, if you’re of a certain generation, and you’re thinking of the episode of Seinfeld where George Costanza briefly becomes a hand model, or, you envision David Duchovny wearing a protective glass container around his hand as “the world’s greatest hand model” in Zoolander – DiBona has already heard all the jokes about his work. His friends, family, and the people who sit at his bar are all tickled when they hear his story. “People are like, ‘I’ve never met a hand model before. That kind of reaction is so funny to me. Good for the ego.’” Often, they ask what his dream gig is. He has an answer on hand.

“I think the pinnacle of hand modeling is The Addams Family ‘Thing,’” – the disembodied but otherwise benevolent hand that skitters across the Addams family mansion.

Hand modeling for the food and beverage industry may not be where DiBona thought his life would take him, but he loves telling people his story and watching the delight on their faces. Whether it was luck, fate, or dexterity that had a hand in it all, he’s happy to be along for the ride.

“I’ve always been saying, ‘Something’s going to happen. You got to just keep going.’ There’s been so many setbacks. But I’ve been like, ‘It’s fine. We’ll just go a different way.’ But it’s been amazing. I’m forever an optimist,” DiBona says. “I’m just overwhelmed and humbled by all this.”