Food Porn: “a glamourized spectacular visual presentation of cooking or eating in advertisements, infomercials, cooking shows or other visual media, foods boasting a high fat and calorie content, exotic dishes that arouse a desire to eat or the glorification of food as a substitute for sex”. Luckily, with the help of filters and smart phone cameras, even the sloppiest of baseball guilty pleasures can be portrayed as a gourmet dish.
Instagram gives college kids the ability to feign top chef cooking skills through pleasing aesthetics, but can it have a reverse effect on actual household-name cooks?
Martha Stewart has recently received a lot of criticism from followers because of her "disgusting" food tweets. Should someone as talented as Martha really need to worry about filters and small depths of fields when photographing her meals? Personally, despite a primarily grey color scale, I still recognize Martha's fabulous recipes. I was happy to see her personally respond to the harsh criticism without letting it affect her.
Kudos to Martha for a-dressing the critics while still recognizing her talents. Based on high engagement with her tweets, apparently her fans agree. Bright, colorful pictures of food may be nice to scroll through, but 1000 words won't fill your stomach. We should be wary of Brones' idea that we forget what's actually in the food and read the recipe rather than judge the angle.
Maybe if Martha utilized her Instagram account and started hashtagging "food porn" over twitpiccing, her followers wouldn't be as critical. But is it necessary for Martha to prove her accomplished cook status through a social media fad? What do you think?
I absolutely love cooking, and i love instagramming - but I do not always mix the two! For me, cooking is less about showing off my creation and more about enjoying the cooking process, having some me time and eating a really delicious meal. In my opinion, for people to attack Martha Stewart over how her food looks is silly, she is an established chef, celebrity, and house hold name. Jumping all over her for a picture not looking great and not living up to its #foodporn label, is silly. I understand sharing some moments on social media through images, but I do not like the idea of people making such a fuss over such a mundane thing. Its food, prepare it, cook it, eat it and enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteMy own disclaimer though - I loveeee taking pictures of my sushi.
It's funny that you mentioned sushi because not only is it delicious, but presentation is half of the meal! Instagrams of pretty plates are nice to browse through in moderation, which is why Martha is receiving so much criticism.
DeleteDanielle, I never thought I could enjoy a food blog as much as I've been enjoying reading yours! Along with millions of others, I love Instagramming my food, and in my social media-minded brain, food isntagramming is an artform. The filter as to be just right, and the picture needs to make my follower's mouth water. I enjoy looking at eye-pleasing pictures of food, but as silly as that sounds, I don't always think about how amazing they might taste. It really is a shame that well-respected chefs are getting flack about how their pictures are being viewed. It just goes to show how much social media is affecting making different industries.
ReplyDeleteCamille- I may need a few of your foodstagramming tips! I'm not quite as behind as Martha, but I could work on my angles a little (lol). And you're completely right- it is a shame social media is working against top chefs' popularity.
DeleteHi Danielle --
ReplyDeleteI had never thought that professionals sharing pictures of their food on social media could hurt follower's opinions of them (Instagram usually makes everything look so delicious!) but after checking out some of Martha's pictures, I'm starting to second-guess myself. Some of those are pretty bad, and her follower's reactions to them just make it worse. While I don't think this really affects her image -- she is a prominent household name, after all -- it's definitely something for chefs and foodies who are just starting out to think about. Their food could be delicious and look great in real life, but considering the scale and power of social media these days, one bad picture could ruin a career.
Thanks for sharing!
Hey Danielle, I really enjoyed this post because I myself sometimes dabble in a foodstagram here and there because I absolutely love cooking blogs! While others can't get their noses out of the latest celebrity gossip, I can't seem to stray away from all the different recipes and cooking advice that blogs have to offer. In relation to your comments on whether foodstagramming is hurting or helping the kitchen pros, I think it's definitely helping, just as long as followers realize that the finished product doesn't have to be as picture perfect as Instagram portrays it to be. I recently tried my hand at Paleo Banana Blueberry Pancakes and in the middle of making them, I almost gave up because the presentation looked nothing like how delicious the pictures online were. Good thing I pressed on because they actually tasted amazing! I think foodstagramming is great because it is attractive to the viewer's eyes which gets them to try something new, but they need to understand in real life, visual representation isn't everything. My tummy surely didn't care that the pancakes weren't beautiful, but they were definitely scrumptious.
ReplyDeleteHi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I rarely Instagram pictures of my own food (I once Instagrammed a picture of Chipotle if I'm being honest) I do see food all over my newsfeed. I usually don't think twice about it and figure if someone is sharing their food on Instagram, it is probably because it is especially visually pleasing. But, in turn I assume that if it looks good, it must also taste good. As you point out, this could potentially be wrong. However, I think that in the field of PR, visuals are becoming the utmost important. So, for someone like Martha Stewart or any other professional chef, it might be time to start using filters. Food has always been about the presentation. If it doesn't look good who's going to take the first bite. The same goes for Instagram. It's all about the look. If you're a chef and you're posting pictures of food that don't look appetizing, you might not get many customers.