culinary art meets the iphone - are looks as important as taste and smell?

I discretely photograph food. I want to remember a dish before it is ravaged or home cooked meal that hopefully tastes as good as it looks. I enjoy culinary art, and I am as obsessed with my iphone as I am with food. Apparantly I'm not the only one.

I am as excited about the way food looks - whether it is a stack of fruit at the market or a creatively plated entree - and appreciate presentation as much as taste or smell. I feel giddy like a child when the waiter presents my food and it just looks so incredible. Even if the taste is mediocre, snapping a quick photo is like gathering up all that excitement and bottling it, or preserving it as a memory, when anything is still possible. As much in your laptop as your brain, this image will transport you to that time forever.

A friend recently sent me a link to a New York Times article that was the cover feature for the Dining & Wine section about a month ago. I knew there were others like me, who blog or have food websites. Or who just love to photograph food. Today, I welcome 2 men to this group.

In the same week I received my first 2 food photographs from another person. Usually I am sending or posting them, but I really enjoyed seeing these in my inbox. They both know their way around a restaurant, a camera phone and are without a doubt the two most influential men in my life. My husband and my father. Same week. Weird!

The first was last Wednesday, when my husband sent me a photo of his healthy dinner. He was on a new diet, and was proud of his healthy dinner and wanted to share it with me. He asked me what he could get besides a greek salad or burger, and I suggested "something grilled with vegetables." He sent me this photo of the grilled salmon, above. I was out with friends and we were trying to guess where it came from. The vegetable medley and foil-wrapped potato suggested a place with high turnover, where the waitress would be certain to ask you "fried, baked or mashed?" Any guesses? First correct guess wins a free lunch at this Westfield eatery.



Then today, my dad sent me a photograph of his dinner in Chinatown. Far from Westfield but close to home, his meal reminded him of me. He sent it to me because a few years ago we spent some time in Chinatown sampling various restaurants, which we dubbed as "important research" and ate a lot of soups and dumplings. If anyone were to start a blog on chinese soup, it might be my dad. He writes "It’s unbelievable what $4.75 can buy. This was at the restaurant that we ate in twice at the corner of Henry Street and Catherine Street in Chinatown. It was about a 7 inch bowl crammed full of the most delicious roast pork noodle soup with shrimp dumplings (that actually contained small whole shrimp). I recalled the two of us eating there as I finished every drop."

Memory enhanced memories. Fading faster than your iphone battery.

Say Cheese!
WF