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Professional chefs say the key to getting tons of reservations is a good Instagram photo
Caroline MossJun 8, 2015, 17:57 IST
We're all guilty of Instagramming a good brunch or a good burger, a cocktail or an ice cream sundae.
But while most of us are amateur photographers with only a handful of followers on Instagram, there are a few people in the food business who have more of a reach when they upload some excellent #FoodPorn: Professional chefs.
"It's all about exposure," Dominique Crenn of Atelier Crenn in San Francisco tells Wired's Miguel Andrade. "Instagram came to give a voice to chefs and to the food they serve."But can a good photo (like the ones above taken by chef April Bloomfield and Matthew Jennings, respectively) actually translate into a booming restaurant business?Chefs seem to think - and know - so. "A shot of a new dish posted to their own accounts, or a diner's, can cause reservations to spike," Andrade writes. And some of those chefs like to be the only on-site photographer. Wired notes French chef Alexandre Gauthier of La Grenouillère who banned patrons from Instagramming in his restaurant.And some love their guests' photography work."I'll be honest. If I have a better looking dish, I give that one to the people taking photos," Benedict Reade tells Andrade. Reade is the former chef at Nordic Food Lab in Copenhagen and generally feels good about folks Instagramming his dishes, but says it can be annoying if the photograph takes precedence over simply eating and enjoying the food."What really annoys me is when people Instagram live," Reade says. "When I'm serving someone's food and put a beautiful hot plate on the table but they are so concerned to post and food gets cold because they are trying to find the perfect caption before they eat the f--king food. Do you know how much I sweated to make the food the right temperature for you? Are you here to show off to your friends?"
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