should we always post photos of what we eat?
By Ron Cruz
In the age where a smart phone is fast becoming a food utensil, everyone can easily become a foodie, a critique, a connoisseur. So, inevitably food-whoring became a subculture of travel and social media: Taking pictures of what’s on the plate replaced the prayer before meals and the cyber generation claimed a responsibility to show the world what we are eating despite the fact that no one is asking for us to do so.
In the pre-social media world, people will only take pictures of food because:
- They work in the food industry (like chefs, stylist, writers, photographers).
- There’s a bug in the food and they want to have an evidence when they sue the restaurant.
Now people take pictures of food because:
- Uh, duh!
- Because you want to show-off and caption: Kaffir lime marinated partridge medallions on coconut reduction with artichoke puree, saffron couscous-quinoa sides, slow terra cotta baked cilantro, kumquat and kale chips drizzled with oil of olay and calamine aioli. #YUM #DuckFace #FoodPorn
Should we do this? The safe answer is “It depends on where you are.”
French culture. Their cuisine set a global benchmark in gastronomic standards, dining is deemed to be a serious affair and so some chefs do not like the idea of diners taking photos of the food. That’s understandable, because their culinary culture said so.
This culinary culture also said eating burger is a carnal sin, fast food is dismissed as a cultural taboo and don’t get them started with french fries because they will brush you off and they will deny the responsibility for it, ask for pommes frites.
In a country where they can change the color of McDonald’s logo because the yellow and red are, well, too tacky for Champs Elysees, we could not help but abide or be ready for a Parisian wrath for dessert.
One should really make a dissertation on Chefs’ free publicity versus intellectual property in social media. A lot of renowned chefs are campaigning to stop taking pictures of their food, I think I understand why: (1) they are spoiling the novelty for other diners, (2) they somehow feel their intellectual property rights are violated and (3) it is painful for a chef to watch the perfectly cooked steak at 133°F medium rare go cold while the diner take several shots using her smartphone for her real-time blow-by-blow instagram posting.
I also understand the passion behind the hash tag, Food Porn. FINE! But don’t blame people for thinking of you humping the thanksgiving rotisserie turkey or when the bratwurst went missing.
I am not a sophisticated foodie, I just pretend I know the difference between hors d’oeuvre versus amuse bouche, and hummus vesus baba ghanoush. Half of the trick is just learning to pronounce it correctly. Anyway, nobody really cares if you know what a foie gras is, for as long as you know that there is a sad duck behind it, it is expensive and it tastes like isaw (grilled pork/chicken intestines), that’s fairly good enough.
So for non-experts/non-pros like me (and majority of us in instagram) the myopic eye of the general public is prying and asking the existential question of whether we should ALWAYS post photos of what we eat.
The correct answer is “Do whatever you feel like doing!” But my personal take on this is simple and I will say this without being judgmental:
Ruling-out the issue on meal etiquettes and cultural differences, try to ask yourself if the people around you are genuinely interested on what you had for lunch, if your answer is a resounding YES, then snap and post! But if you are just trying to sound sophisticated when you caption “I just had a Calenberger Pfannenschlag!” we will just hope it is not a sexually transmitted infection. And if your answer is NO, then save your battery, shut up and eat #BonAppetit.
Photo was taken with the chef’s permission. Obviously.