We're all guilty of reaching for our phones the minute a chef or waiter places a delicious-looking plate of food on the table.
In fact, it doesn't matter if it's a homemade dish or a beautifully plated restaurant meal, sometimes the meal just looks so good, you simply have to share it with your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram followers.
Taking a picture of your homemade creation is simple - you plate your dish, take as many snaps as you like until you have the perfect one then it’s bon appétit!
The rules are slightly different when you find yourself at a dimly lit restaurant with other diners who are there to enjoy a good meal and not necessarily gain more social media likes and followers.
We all love taking pics of our food at restaurants, but don’t bother other people.
Picture: Pexels
Do you use your camera flash? Is it acceptable to take pictures of other people’s food? Do you rearrange the table setting in order to get your perfect shot?
Celebrity chef and food stylist, Zola Nene has her own rules when it comes to social media etiquette at the dinner table.
- If you plan on taking food snaps at a restaurant, be strategic about where you choose to sit. Choose a table that’s closest to the window so you get the best light.
- If you’re in a badly lit space, then it’s too dark to take the food photo. I say just forget about the photo, eat the food and just savour the flavour. The memory of a good meal is far better than a crappy photo of it.
- We all love taking pics of our food at restaurants, but don’t be annoying to other people. Standing on chairs and rearranging furniture to get the perfect shot is unacceptable, restrict yourself to your table only - a restaurant isn’t your personal space, be mindful of other paying customers.
- I dine out with a lot of my friends who are foodies, naturally, we all want to photograph each other’s food. The only way this works is with the 30-second rule. Each person gets 30 seconds to photograph each dish, trust me, the time limit is so necessary, it guarantees that you’ll still get to eat your food while it’s hot!
- Taking pictures of other people’s food (as in strangers at other tables that you’ve never met), this is a no-go zone for me! I mean, can you imagine?! All I know is if a stranger asked to take a picture of my plate of food at a restaurant I’d think they were totally loopy...don’t be the loopy person at the restaurant!
Not that you know the rules, watch as Zola shows you how to take the perfect food snaps
Chef Zola Nene shares tips for tasty social media food pics.
Video: Rhodes Food Group.
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