French chefs ban food photography

[Spearhead]

<p>People can just get it to go and photograph outside the restaurant.</p>

[AJHingel]

<p>""But when in Rome...what do they do in Rome anyway?""<br>

<br>

Gerry, it might surprise you, but even photographers live in Rome, Italy - and some, even happily so.<br>

</p>

[gary_leonard3]

T think this is really a sign of how obnoxious SOME people can be with cell phone cameras. But it is old news. I used to photograph celebrities in restaurants (with permission) and outside of places where photography was not allowed inside. I know photographers who waited outside of restaurants hoping to get photos of the stars as far back as the 1930s. A business has a right to say if photos are allowed in his establishment.

[GerrySiegel]

<blockquote>

<p>People can just get it to go and photograph outside the restaurant.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Jeff,you are thinking out of the box, or rather outside w/ with the take away box. It is lamentable in some ways. And I understand the sensitivities; the decline of Western civilization as we knew it comes in such small steps. Tracing origins, Anders. Not the sack of Rome, not fall of Byzantium. Not Reign of Terror, Napoleon or Marxist revolution .<br /> <em>It begins with Nokia, and now by Samsung.</em> Google glasses might be next. Business will always court its paying customers. <br /> Hollande can come to dine with his girlfriend tete a tete and no one will dare shoot them at their table, even w/o mini flash.<br /> We are different out here, but the same underneath I suspect. A touch of tact and proprietary never hurts. Permission never hurts either. Never overdo, lest you be seated next to the you know what.....</p>

[jenkins]

<p>If you are in a communal space dining you should not be impeding on other people's experiences in any shape or form, isn't that just common sense an good manners?</p>

<p>Remember before cell phones when you would go to a gig and just before it was about to start a 7 foot giant would stand in front of you and you'd think "Oh man of all the places to stand you pick that spot"</p>

<p>Now it doesn't matter where you are because as soon as the music starts it's impossible to see the band with all the arms in the air holding phones, I'd like to see them banned there too.</p>

 

[shutterbud]

I can see a case for both reactions to this decision and I think it all hinges on the personality of the chef. This kind of restriction might be appropriate for the restaurant; it might not. I can't judge without going there. But I do feel that the claim that a dish is intellectual property would in fact be enhanced by many high quality photographs with the accompanying exif data. if the fashion industry followed this chef's example, there would be no photography at any Fashion Week.

[MichaelChang]

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<p><em>"If the fashion industry followed this chef's example, there would be no photography at any Fashion Week."</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>I think the difference is that fashion relies on visual stimulus to sell its product, whereas culinary creations in high end restaurants rely on a customer's imagination enhanced by the restaurant's ambiance to create the anticipation of a pleasant surprise, when served. <br>

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Distributing photos of a meal just might spoil the surprise enough to discourage others from trying the restaurant. </p>

[Mark Keefer]

<p>Forbid someone takes a photo of French cuisine with the Eiffel Tower behind it at night. Deux erreurs embarrassantes de l'étiquette. Then you will be dealt with most severely by chief inspector Clouseau and the French etiquette police.<br /> lol</p>