Are you guilty of 'food porn'?

THIS IS NOT A FOOD POST

Didn't know I would some day be involved in porn (hehe).....'food porn' that is!  I read an interesting article in the Star newspapers a few days ago (which was derived from an article in The Telegraph).

What is 'food porn'?  One definition states that 'food porn' is taking mouthwatering pictures of delicious foods and proliferating them throughout various social media websites.  If that is the case, all the food bloggers and amateur food photographers (in fact, all of us) are guilty of 'food porn' in one way or another.

 

In the article (excerpt taken from The Telegraph), it seems some French chefs have spoken out about the increasing number of diners who disrupt their restaurants by taking endless photos of their food with their smartphones.  They say that the customers would.....

 

1)  set off a series of flashes (I don't use flash)

 

2)  repositioned their tables (this is a bit absurd, I've never done that before except to reposition the plate
     for a better angle, maybe)

 

3)  take each photo several times (ok, I'm guilty of this...sometimes, but only if the first photo was blur)

 

......thereby leaving the food to go cold (we paid for the food and we should be allowed to eat it the way we want---cold or otherwise!)

 

Now a group of leading French restaurants are campaigning to end the culture of 'food porn' and ban smartphone photos from their restaurants....and they are not alone in their displeasure.  Some restaurants in New York have become so frustrated with clients climbing on chairs to photograph the dishes that they too have banned smartphones.  Climbing on chairs?......That's going overboard, don't you think?  I don't think we would go so far!
 

One French chef said....if people take a photo and put it on social media, it takes away the surprise, it takes a little bit of his intellectual property too and someone could copy it.  What intellectual property?  It's just food....and great chefs should not be afraid of being copied for they are always creating/innovating new dishes all the time!

 

One French chef "raised the issue" with his clients by putting an image of a camera with a strike-through on his menu (although he has yet to ban cameras officially) while another wants to ban camera phones but has yet to find an 'acceptable' way of doing it.  If there's a restaurant here who bans camera phones, I don't think I would want to patronise that restaurant because taking away our freedom to take photos is like taking away our fundamental right to vote....that's how I see it!

 

Why are they being so ungrateful anyway?  They should thank us instead because photos (taken and shared) are free advertising and publicity for their restaurants.  Most of us take photos of the food we eat simply because we want to share it with friends and family, whether through a food blog, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or any form of social media....what's the harm in that?

 

To those restaurants (thinking of banning cameras and smartphones)....think again!  They have to move ahead with the times and, like it or not, social networking is here to stay...so deal with it!!
 

So, keep on clicking and snapping away to your hearts content, people!!!