What’s the science behind food porn?

Dans l’assiette et sur les réseaux sociaux, la nourriture fait son show.

L’avènement des réseaux sociaux, et notamment d’Instagram, a fondamentalement changé notre rapport à la nourriture. Le phénomène consistant à photographier notre nourriture et à partager ces photos en ligne a encore de beaux jours devant lui. Ce sont de grands chefs, qui, dès la fin des années 70, ont amorcé cette tendance, en décidant que leurs plats se devaient d’être aussi beaux que bons. Aujourd’hui, la nourriture est devenue un véritable spectacle pour les yeux.

Your brain is your body’s most bloodthirsty organ, using around 25% of total blood flow (or energy) – despite the fact that it accounts for only 2% of body mass. Given that our brains have evolved to find food, it should perhaps come as little surprise to discover that some of the largest increases in cerebral blood flow occur when a hungry brain is exposed to images of desirable foods. Within little more than the blink of an eye, our brains make a judgment call about how much we like the foods we see and how nutritious they might be. And so you might be starting to get the idea behind gastroporn.

FOOD BEHAVIOURS

2. Apicius, the first-century Roman gourmand and author, is credited with the aphorism: “The first taste is always with the eyes.” Nowadays, the visual appearance of a dish is just as important as, if not more important than, the taste/flavour itself. We are bombarded by food images, from adverts through to social media and TV cookery shows. Unfortunately, though, the foods that tend to look best (or rather, that our brains are most attracted to) are generally not the healthiest. Quite the reverse, in fact.

3. We may all face being led into less healthy food behaviours by the highly desirable images of foods that increasingly surround us. In 2015, just as in the year before, food was the second most searched-for category on the internet (after pornography). The blame, if any, doesn’t reside solely with the marketers, food companies and chefs; a growing number of us are actively seeking out images of food – “digital foraging”, if you will. How long, I wonder, before food takes the top slot?

EVOLUTION

4. People have been preparing beautifullooking foods for feasts and celebrations for centuries. However, for anything other than an extravagant feast, the likelihood is that meals in the past would have been served without any real concern for how they looked. That they tasted good, or even just that they provided some sustenance, was all that mattered. This was true even of famous French chefs, as highlighted by the following quote from Sebastian Lepinoy, executive chef at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon: “French presentation was virtually non-existent. If you ordered a coq au vin at a restaurant, it would be served just as if you had made it at home.”

5. Everything changed, though, when east met west in the French kitchens of the 1960s. It was this meeting of culinary minds that led to nouvelle cuisine, and with it, gastroporn – a term that dates to a review in 1977 of Paul Bocuse’s French Cookery. The name stuck. These days, more and more chefs are becoming concerned (obsessed, even) by how their food photographs. As one restaurant consultant put it: “I’m sure some restaurants are preparing food now that is going to look good on Instagram.” 6. Some have been struggling with how to deal with the trend for diners sharing meals on social media. Much publicised responses include everything from limiting diners’ opportunities to photograph the food during the meal through to banning photography inside the restaurant. It would, however, seem as though the chefs have now, mostly, embraced the trend, acknowledging that it is all part of “the experience”.

A MARKETING GOAL

7. There is a sense in which the visual appeal of the meal has become an end in itself. Researchers and food companies have begun to establish which tricks and techniques work best in terms of increasing the eye-appeal of a dish, including, for instance, showing food, especially protein, in motion (even if it is just implied motion) to attract the viewer’s attention and convey freshness.

There is a sense in which the visual appeal of the meal has become an end in itself.