Star chefs ask: stop with those photos

Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: chefs ask: stop with those photos

Michelin-star chef Heston Blumenthal is extremely annoyed by guests who take photos of every course and every dish in his restaurant. ‘Sometimes we want to say: your food is getting cold.’

Blumenthal is the famous chef of The Fat Duck, a three-star restaurant in Bray, England. The restaurant is renowned for its pioneering role in molecular cuisine. Those dishes often look spectacular, and then guests think not only of their appetite but also of their Instagram account. Too bad, thinks the chef. He understands that the eye wants something too, but he believes that eating is primarily a matter of smelling and tasting, and that doesn't happen when people first determine the perfect angle, lighting, and crop with their mobile phone or camera.

Flashes prohibited
In an article in the Belgian food magazine Ambiance, the chef explains that the problem is often discussed in his kitchen. He resists the temptation to intervene because he doesn't want to upset the guests. ‘We've been talking about this for years. Sometimes we just want to say that their food is getting cold.’ If there are also flashes involved, the star chef will intervene. ‘That bothers other guests.’

‘What are they doing?’
In the town of Bray, there is another three-star restaurant, Waterside Inn, run by the French brothers Michel and Albert Roux. They go even further: a sign on their door warns that guests are not allowed to take photos. Michel Roux was completely done with it. He explains to the Daily Mail: ‘What are those people doing? You can't capture the flavors in a photo!’