Restaurants Starting to Ban Food Photography

Restaurants have begun prohibiting their customers from taking pictures of their food, the New York Times reports, citing several renowned chefs.

restaurants ban food photography

Photo captured by alaamohammed

Taking pictures of food is nothing new, but the growing number of diners who come to restaurants armed with cameras of all sorts has triggered photo bans all over the country. Just look up #foodporn on Instagram and you’ve got yourself a whopping 11,000,000+ photos to sift through. Some restaurants are more lenient than others by only restricting flash photography, but there are some that have banned food photography altogether, even if it means free advertising.

A few chefs and restaurant owners found a way to cope with today’s trend by inviting foodstagrammers back to their kitchens so that they can get a better shot.

“We’ll say, ‘That shot will look so much better on the marble table in our kitchen. It’s like, here’s the sauce, here’s the plate. Snap it. We make it like an adventure for them instead of telling them no,” David Bouley told the NY Times.

Others are not as forgiving of iPhone food photography. After all, it’s not unusual to see someone standing on their chair just to gain a better perspective of their plate, or disgruntled dining companions waiting for their photographer friend to finish documenting their dishes.

“Some people are arrogant about it. They don’t understand why. But we explain that it’s one big table and we want the people around you to enjoy their meal. They pay a lot of money for this meal. It became even a distraction for the chef,” said Moe Issa of Chef’s Table.

On the other hand, Chefs like Marc Wilkinson of Michelin starred restaurant, Fraiche told the BBC:

“I don’t see any problem with it at all… I think if people are discreet and it’s subtly done, it doesn’t encroach on fellow diners then I have no issue at all. “

I’m guilty of keeping a food diary and posting the occasional foodstagram, but I’ve never disrupted another diner’s experience with my photography. I’d much rather take a bad photo from where I’m seated than take a good one from on top of my chair. What about you? To what lengths do you go for food photography?

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