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Igor Ranc's avatar

This sadly also became a trend with restaurants: now they need to serve Instagrammable dishes and optimize for that. I like to think in terms of "honest meals" and much prefer those over some dry ice tricks :)

It is also true that a nicely presented plate is a pleasure by itself. Reminds me of plating subreddit ... :)

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Otis Hagen Chevalier's avatar

Speaking of IG, my favourite is TheArtOfPlating. Beautiful and artful plating. I’ll need to check the plating subreddit!

I think you hit another topic on the head, restaurants don’t need to focus so much on flavor if it looks picture worthy to share on IG. Better promotion that way instead of something as dull as “flavor” which is harder to promote…

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Igor Ranc's avatar

this is it: https://www.reddit.com/r/CulinaryPlating/

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Thomas Cleary's avatar

I entirely agree with your assessment of food advertising. It brings to mind yet another trick advertisers play, particularly in regards to anything sweet (especially if it involves chocolate) - that picture of chocolate sauce gushing over ice cream, orange juice splashing into a glass or insane amounts of brightly colored sprinkles on a cake. It’s that idea of opulence, the feeling of richness where if some of the sauce or juice spills on the floor not to worry because when you’ve got our product, baby, you’re decadently rich.

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Otis Hagen Chevalier's avatar

Exactly! It’s madness, the idea to make anyone feel like king or queen for the day because you have all the choice in the world.

No need to look at the never-ending parade of the same product that are decorated differently. Just remember to come back to our product because we are the best and you deserve the best!

Capitalistic regurgitation 🤢🏆

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Karl Straub's avatar

Disturbing, but fascinating!

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Rez Rahman's avatar

Okay okay, I agree! Great article and thanks for shedding light on something I've also been thinking about Otis!!

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Annexes's avatar

Not sure where you live but in Europe there has been a trend to 'rebrand' deformed vegetables, because lots of Europeans are really anti-food waste. The 'ugly' vegetables are bought up for presumably a cheaper price and sold by a specific brand and then sold for the same price as non-ugly veggies (lol).

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Otis Hagen Chevalier's avatar

I live in Berlin, Germany and there is an effort to rebrand deformed or ugly-looking veggies here too, which is another good point. It’s aesthetically inferior but the sales point is a strong one, sustainable food which would normally go to waste just because of appearance. Like you said, bought cheaper and rebranded and sold at the same price is such a hypocritical concept don’t you think?

But if we put all the veggies and fruits on the shelves, we would still pick the nice looking ones because we’re geared like that now.. Smh

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Alice Whiting's avatar

What are your thoughts on the new wave food styling where food is used as an art form such as @lailacooks and @stolzes and @toutia_____ ? Personally I love it, though ofc its a far cry from commercial food styling and much more playful ;)

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Otis Hagen Chevalier's avatar

I enjoy and find what they do inspiring and creative. The contemporary aspect is interesting because they try to show the modern problems through their art.

Sometimes it’s a bit far fetched and too abstract for me, like a simple cherry tomatoes in a bowl… it can get cringe real quick for me at times.

I think food is elegant and that alone is art, it’s an artistic sustenance both through food that is meant for survival and also satiates a hunger of creativity. Cool choice as an artistic medium.

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