Kim Kardashian once proclaimed that posting photos of food was not sexy. Maybe I don't know what's hot or not, because on more than one occasion I've waited an hour for food at a restaurant and, instead of taking a bite the minute the waiter placed the plate in front of me, snapped a pic instead.
Now, a restaurant in Maidenhead is squashing your food porn dreams. According to GrubStreet, Waterside Inn has banned all food photography, allowing us to finally wonder if food unseen by the masses really does taste as good.
Taking photos of your food may be something that insufferable Millennials, like myself, do every time we're presented with a pretty plate, but Waterside Inn is not one to be swayed by trends. Michel Roux, who co-founded the three-Michelin-star restaurant with his brother Albert, simply put up a card that says "No photos, please," in hopes that it would dissuade people from turning their restaurant into a food porn hub.
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Speaking to GrubStreet, Michel admitted he doesn't even get why people are so into taking photos of their food in the first place. He told the outlet:
"What are they doing? Maybe once during the meal you want to take a little photo of something because it’s unusual. But what about the flavours? A picture on a phone cannot possibly capture the flavours."
The thing is, Roux is actually right. One does not enjoy the taste of a decadent cake simply from scrolling through the Cheesecake Factory's Instagram feed. So why do we love food porn so much? Well, according to a 2015 article in the Atlantic, researchers still aren't sure why we enjoy looking at photos of food so much — let alone posting said photos of food for our followers to see.
An article in New York Magazine from 2016 titled "The Psychological Case For Instagramming Your Food," has some er, food for thought: Maybe what we really enjoy about taking pics of our meals is that it builds anticipation for the food you're about to dig into.
Valid point, for sure — the best things in life are worth the wait, right?
Just don't try to build your foodie Instagram account while dining at Waterside Inn. The only thing you're allowed to do with the food at that restaurant is, well, eat it. And hey...maybe that's enough?
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