I'm a Longtime Waiter and This Is the Biggest Mistake People Make When They Photograph Their Meal

For a lot of people, nothing is truly official until it’s been posted on social media for likes, thumbs up emojis, and hearts. Who amongst us hasn't gone to a restaurant and snapped a few photos of our food and cocktails so our friends and family know how amazing our lives are? We all do it, but some people might go a little too far.

I went to the iconic Central Park Boathouse for lunch last summer for the first time and I definitely took some photos. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you don’t want your mini-photo shoot to hamper anyone else trying to enjoy their meal. The table of people next to me had a different way of thought. When their server walked towards them with plates of spaghetti and lobster and jumbo lump crab cakes, they jumped into action like they were Steven Spielberg creating a film adaptation of My Lunch at the Central Park Boathouse.

The four of them directed their server where to place the food and at what angle and speed. I watched them take photos of one another and after each snap, they handed the phone to their friend for photo approval.

Over and over again, they lifted forks of steaming pasta and buttery lobster holding it in front of their mouths, but never taking an actual bite. One of them slid their chair back away from the table to get a group selfie, not realizing she was now in my very own personal space and way too close to my prime ribeye French dip.

They then edited, filtered, and cropped photos all for the good of social media as their food languished on the table, growing closer to room temperature. When they ordered desserts, it was a sequel that was even better than the original. It was like dinner and a show for me and the other customers. The view of the lake was beautiful, but they stole all the focus.

Related: So Your Friend Got Too Loud and Drunk at the Restaurant — Here's What to Do

Don't treat the waiter like an extra in your movie

I couldn’t help but think about the server who was treated like a background actor in their production. He did his job very well and he deserved an Oscar nomination for acting like he didn’t mind being directed by a bunch of 20-somethings. If you’re going to Instagram your meal, make sure that the staff and food doesn’t suffer for it. Take as many photos as you want, but maybe post them later. No one is looking at their social media feed in real time anyway, so if the photo of the vanilla creme brûlée is posted two hours after it was served, it’s fine.

"Eat your food when it’s hot, post your photos later, and leave your server out of it."

Darron Cardosa

You might find an unwelcome surprise in the background

Back in the 1900s we thought differently about taking photos of food. We had cameras with film and a precious number of exposures to use, so taking a picture of spaghetti would have been unheard of. We took photos of birthday cakes and Thanksgiving dinners, and that’s it. When I waited tables and a customer asked me to take a photo of them, there was no instant photo approval unless it was a Polaroid camera that spit out a photo to be waved back and forth until the image appeared. I just snapped a couple of photos, knowing they wouldn’t see what it looked like until a couple of weeks later when it got developed at a drugstore.

Fun fact: every time I took a photo of a customer when I worked at Houlihan’s in Times Square, at least one of my coworkers was in the background making a face.

Related: Do Restaurant Spaces Exist for Art or Instagram?

Don't believe everything you see on Instagram

The carefully curated image of an Instagram feed is not real. For every perfect picture of a cocktail, there are 20 images that didn’t make the cut. If you ever see a restaurant Instagram account that looks mouthwateringly delicious, make sure to go to the tagged photos of that restaurant so you can see the images that customers posted instead of just those posted by social media managers.

Don’t forget that taking photos of a meal isn’t what makes it memorable. My husband and I had our tenth anniversary at The River Cafe in Brooklyn in 2001 and we didn’t take one single photo. Despite that, I remember what we wore, what we ate, and how we felt. Instagram and TikTok can be great fun, but don’t let them become more important than the meal itself.

And please eat your food when it’s hot, post your photos later, and leave your server out of it.

Related: How to Become a Food Instagram Influencer

Read the original article on Food & Wine