Taking restaurant food photos in France

[Fibilou]

Or you can use my tried and tested method. Make it look as if you are taking a photograph of your delightful dining companion on this celebration occassion and sneakily include the food in the shot.

This worked well for me the first time I took photos in a restaurant as I was embarrassed. Now i have no shame...

[markk]

Well, Fibilou beat me to it, but I was going to add that it's very common to see flashes from cameras go off in even the fanciest restaurants, and when you look (if you care, that is) you see that somebody's taking a group photo of the people dining at their table, or more likely, they have asked the waiter to take a photo of them (so that the photographer's not excluded).

We - society, that is - think nothing of people taking a picture of people in a restaurant, at least the people they're dining with (I'm not referring to paparazzi invading the restaurant and taking photos of the guests) - so why should anybody care that the camera is aimed at your food instead of your dining companions?

[Dave Hatfield]

Ok, despite or maybe because of my opinions expressed earlier in the thread I broke down on Sunday and photographed my food. I'm still so surprised at myself so there was nothing for it, but to inflict my poor effort on you my fellow eGulleteers and habituates of the French forum.

Here goes:

Fortunately we had reserved our table well in advance as the place was completely full, not a seat to spare. This meal had been eagerly awaited for weeks.

The table decoration. A clever trick here. You can't see very well but the vase (a cut off plastic bottle) is filled with water, but weighted down with chestnuts. The local ladies inform me that they help keep the decoration fresh. In any case they're very pretty.

Water placed on every table. Cooled to exactly 9.28 degrees as per recommendation.

The place setting with the remains of my free apero. Note the ribbon and my tombola ticket. (I'll tell you now that I didn't win; nor did I win the guess the weight of the ham competition although I was very close.

By now you are probably getting the idea that we're not talking Michelin starred restaurant here. In fact we're talking Salle des Fêtes and a fund raiser for the church restoration in Nueivalle. Still, the food was good.

Our first course. Perfectly ripe local melon with jambon de Pays. Both excellent.

Seconds anyone? More ham offered as well.

Not a very good picture of our next course which was superb home made pate with mushrooms & a little cornichon. (Note that we are using the same plate as for our melon. Same utinsils as well. This continues up until dessert.)

The main course. This is a veal stew that could hold its own anywhere. Green olives and a wonderful stock. The potatoes were equally good. They're a local variation upon aligot (also local) The potatoes are sautéed in duck fat with garlic & herbs then mixed with tomme fraich. Absolutely delicious. (In aligot the potatoes are mashed & stirred for a long time with the cheese)

The organizers let themselves down a bit on the cheese. President camembert doesn't stand up very well to our local cheeses. Still, at least it was properly ripe.

The local ladies more than made up for the cheese with a wonderful array of desserts. Lots of seconds offered on these.

Next came coffee and Eau de Vie. Mind you this was all in the same plastic 'glass' we'd been using for our water & wine. Our local people are nothing if not frugal; more money for the restauration!

To round off a nice afternoon and my first food in public pictures we were served this:

Over on my blog (see below) I'll be posting a fuller account of the repas along with quite a few pictures of some of our local characters.

I'm not at all sure that I'll ever take public food pictures again and I haven't changed my opinion about taking them in 'proper' restaurants despite the excellent arguments several you you have made in favour of the practice.

[John Talbott]

Since no one has mentioned this reason for not taking/posting photos I'll chime in.

Many years ago, laden with two PX-purchased Nikons and a lot of lenses and filters, etc, I found myself spending all my time travelling tripoding, setting up, taking and repeating shots; so much that Colette said why didn't I just look at things and remember them.

And so, I got rid of almost all my eqpt, started looking, and now it's Colette who takes the digital shots, posts them, distributes them, prints them and I have the memories.

Have I lost anything? I don't think so. A word can substitute, I think, for a thousand pictures.

[markk]

Since no one has mentioned this reason for not taking/posting photos I'll chime in.

Many years ago, laden with two PX-purchased Nikons and a lot of lenses and filters, etc, I found myself spending all my time travelling tripoding, setting up, taking and repeating shots; so much that Colette said why didn't I just look at things and remember them.

And so, I got rid of almost all my eqpt, started looking, and now it's Colette who takes the digital shots, posts them, distributes them, prints them and I have the memories.

Have I lost anything?  I don't think so.  A word can substitute, I think, for a thousand pictures.

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We also reached the point when considering packing the photo equipment of thinking "you know, let's just have this one as memories". But now that the cameras are smaller than a pack of cigarettes, and about as heavy, and take brilliant photos without flash, we've gone back to tucking one in our shirt pockets.

[richardv]

Since no one has mentioned this reason for not taking/posting photos I'll chime in.

Many years ago, laden with two PX-purchased Nikons and a lot of lenses and filters, etc, I found myself spending all my time travelling tripoding, setting up, taking and repeating shots; so much that Colette said why didn't I just look at things and remember them.

And so, I got rid of almost all my eqpt, started looking, and now it's Colette who takes the digital shots, posts them, distributes them, prints them and I have the memories.

Have I lost anything?  I don't think so.  A word can substitute, I think, for a thousand pictures.

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I've been an avid photographer for decades and in years past, traveled with a digital SLR, lenses, tripod - the works. I thought nothing about bringing that huge camera (by today's standards) with flash and bounce hood into any restaurant. It never caused a problem and in some cases led to making new friends.

In the past couple of years I have become self-conscious about using flash and have been searching for the best low-light, small digital camera I can find.

[Abra]

Dave, we're proud of you, buddy. Snap away. You go to a lot of cool events and it's very interesting to see them.

[Dave Hatfield]

Dave, we're proud of you, buddy.  Snap away.  You go to a lot of cool events and it's very interesting to see them.

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Thanks, but my tongue was firmly in cheek doing that description. Not that I'd tease those who take pics of beautiful food, but I'm still a firm believer that food is for the eating.

[Ptipois]

Thanks, but my tongue was firmly in cheek doing that description. Not that I'd tease those who take pics of beautiful food, but I'm still a firm believer that food is for the eating.

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Dave, I enjoyed every bit of it. Thank you!

[toto2]

I am just back from Paris and the Perigord/Dordogne region and took a lot of food pictures ! No problem !

[toto2]

This is our duck and foie gras terrine on a nice terrasse in Beynac, in the Dordogne.

Edited September 28, 2007 by toto2 (log)

[toto2]

And my nice chevre chaud salad. The chevre was wrapped in ham and brick.

Those veal cutlet were delicious , and the little cone on the right top was a curried couscous.

This duck and foie gras terrise was eaten at " Les foies gras d'ERilliac" , in Hautefort. Note the big foies gras veins in the terrine .

http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/11909999..._5203_79094.jpg

This foie gras orgy is from Houtefort as well. At the bottom of the plate was a mixture of mussles, shrimps , duck breast in a nice gravy . On top was a stuffed potatoe that was filled with potato and duck confit. And on top was two big pieces of foie gras poêlé... Surprising and super delicious !

[Duncan]

And my nice chevre chaud salad. The chevre was wrapped in ham and brick.

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Is that a typo, or some food term I haven't come across before?

[chezcherie]

i have a small camera, and i photograph nearly all the meals when i travel.

in france, the only time an eyebrow has been raised is when the tables are so close together that you nearly feel related to the diners at the next tables. in those cases, i've found that a smile and a quiet "pour le journal" always brings a nod and a smile in return.

[milkman]

And my nice chevre chaud salad. The chevre was wrapped in ham and brick.

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Is that a typo, or some food term I haven't come across before?

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Brick is used in France for very thin pastry of the type known as filo (eastern Med) or B'stilla ( North African)

[milkman]

I've not had any problems taking photographs in any restaurants - see the Restaurants in Alsace and Lorraine thread http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=102842 I just use a small digital camera and make sure I have the flash turned off. However, I've then noticed others, having seen me take photographs have started taking their own - with the flash on. And flash is annoying!!

...and now I'm back from a rather long summer break (England and Greece - but no food worth reporting on) I'll start adding to the Alsace/Lorraine thread again - although I must admit in the short time I've been back we've also been catching up with good food at our old favourites so I'll probably include some short repeat reports/new images of those as well.

[toto2]

And my nice chevre chaud salad. The chevre was wrapped in ham and brick.

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Is that a typo, or some food term I haven't come across before?

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Brick is used in France for very thin pastry of the type known as filo (eastern Med) or B'stilla ( North African)

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Brickis bit different than phylo. It is more like a very thin crepe and it is much easier to work with than phylo.

[Abra]

I put some nice restaurant food photos, my first in France, right here. No one gave me a moment's notice. No flash, of course.

I'm glad to hear that brik is easier to work with than phyllo. We have feuilles de brik in the stores and a deep fryer, so I have no excuse not to master this ingredient.

[markk]

I certainly hope that after reading the happy stories in this thread, nobody will be afraid of photographing their dinners in France.

And speaking of happy stories, here's one that involves taking movies of the food. It's at the place I already described...

We were in one place in Alsace (a Michelin "bib gourmand" restaurant) where we took photos of everything we ate.  After a few nights (we kept returning because we loved it) a stern-looking, matronly woman who had seen us snapping flash photos every night marched up to us at the end of the meal and asked in German if we were Germans, and I replied that no, we were Americans.  She exclaimed "Wunderbar!" and went on to tell us how wonderful she thought it was that we cared enough about our food to photograph it.

That restaurant is here.

A few nights later a French family at another table held out their plates for us (as they had ordered different things than we had) and suggested we photograph them.  And when we dug into our dessert one night, a Belgian woman at the table next to us (who then became a friend) turned to us in a panic and said "STOP!  You forgot to take the photo."

As I say, it was rather an elegant place:

But the greatness of the food led to a comraderie that's actually not unusual in starred restaurants - I have found that in places, no matter how formal, if the food is great enough, strangers will talk to each other about it. But I digress.

We had marveled at every dinner we ate there at the flakiness of the pastry crust in the apple tarte, and we wanted to capture the sound of it with a video. So we asked the Belgian couple at the table next to us, who had become fast friends, if they thought there was any hope of it, and they assured me there was. And of course, as I looked around the dining room, I realized that most of the people there had proffered their dinner plates for photos at one time or another. So I stood up and tapped my glass with my knife to get everyone's attention, and announced in French that we wanted to take a video of cutting into the apple tarte to convey the crunch of the pastry, and wondered if everybody would go silent for a moment. Of course, those farthest from me couldn't understand what I was saying, so my request got repeated around the room, as everyone nodded in agreement and the room turned completely silent.

And then we shot this: cutting into the Apple Tarte at Restaurant du Faude

I'm not suggesting you try this at a 3-star establishment, but I would, and I think I'd get the same happy-to-cooperate result. I think the answer is that nobody at a temple of gastronomy minds if you love your food enough to want to photograph it.

[Abra]

Holy cow, Markk. That's all I can say, holy cow. That's some crunch, and some chutzpah. Bravo.

[markk]

Holy cow, Markk.  That's all I can say, holy cow.  That's some crunch, and some chutzpah.  Bravo.

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Thanks. But I think that the crunch gets all the credit.

People are people the world around, and just like when you're on eGullet you know you're in a community of food-loving people, the same is true when you're in a gastronomic restaurant, especially if it's one that's off the beaten path requires a bit of an effort to get to. I think you can assume that everybody's made the trek for the same reason. And though it's probably one of the greatest "social no-no's", I can't tell you how many times in great restaurants somebody has leaned over, or come by my table, to ask, "May I ask what that is that you're eating?" or "May I ask if that's a good as it looks?", and it's not unusual, if a server proposes any specials they might have that night, for people at a nearby table to chime in with "and you simply must have that!"

I don't know that it's chutzpah, really. Traveling for culinary reasons is really an adventure waiting to happen. I've gotten involved with people on all sides of me at great restaurants and gotten great recommendations of were else to go and not to go, sometimes involving many tables joining in, and I've been in fancy restaurants where people several tables away, hearing that there's a bit of a language problem, perhaps a local word or phrase not understood, have called out the translation. Unusual by social rules? Sure. But friendly and helpful and greatly appreciated by me and understood by other diners? Indeed.

But gastronomes and gluttons are a friendly bunch. I've got many new e-mail pals from just such situations. And all from having my camera at the table and using it.

[John Whiting]

Having just returned from two weeks of photographing dishes (and menus) in France at all sorts of restaurants (though with a very small camera and without flash), I too can report that there was never a hint of criticism, either verbally or with body language, either from staff or fellow-diners. And occasionally it led to cordial conversation. The fact that so many new cameras have a dedicated "food" mode says something in itself.

[Daniel Rogov]

As happens from time to time, I think I am about to step on a few proverbial toes.

The original question asked if it is appropriate to photograph one's food in a restaurant in France. I would answer the question with a question: As much as some may see it as appropriate, have you ever seen a French man or woman photographing his/her dishes?

And then I would ask another question. With all due respect (which I do have) for those who want souvenirs or want photos for their blogs, do any of those quickly snapped photos stand up positively to those made by professionals were indeed are setting up lights, reflectors, tripods, etc?

[John Talbott]

I would answer the question with a question:  As much as some may see it as appropriate, have you ever seen a French man or woman photographing his/her dishes?

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Yes: Pti and Clotilde, but No, no one else.

[nibor]

I posted elsewhere last week about this, but we saw Americans taking photos in a restaurant in Zurich recently. They were also loud, as Americans (myself included) so often are. Anyway, they clicked and posed and flashed and basically distracted and irritated everyone around them. They didn't seem to notice, or perhaps they did notice but didn't care. And if they thought that no one minded they were wrong - their neighbors were just being polite.