Not Just a Pretty Picture

A chef in France has banned his customers from taking photographs of his food, citing his ‘intellectual copyright’ as having been breached by diners who might otherwise have breathed in a dish’s aroma, tucked in and spoken to their companions. I agree that it is a silly, slightly rude custom that completely misses the point, but I would never impose such a ban. It is their food and their dinner that is being spoilt. Nevertheless, it is a worrying trend.

I blame the TV. Ever since food programmes stopped being fun and started taking food too seriously, the way a dish looks has become more important than the way it smells or tastes. I recently experienced a dish that illustrated this unbalanced visual emphasis. It was sculpted on a black rectangular plate in the shape of a tree. The leaves were a blossom of ice-cold creamy emulsion that tasted of very little. Among the leaves were little spheroid charms in purple, green and orange, with ever more bizarre flavours. At the base of the tree was a collection of small fruits of the forest, which included mushrooms fashioned out of foie gras, shards of Ibérico ham and some micro leaves. Not content with his work, the chef had directed the waiter to come over with a dredger and shower ‘snow’ of dehydrated essence of some worryingly unidentifiable substance over the ensemble. Still worried he might have left something out, the chef came over and shaved some excellent but redundant truffles over the surface. With chef finally satisfied, I was free to savour the dish. It was visually arresting and tasted quite repulsive.