Eating became serious and shared

Culinary has been taking up an increasing space in the general media. Magazines and specialized programs are multiplying, as well as channels and websites that offer recipes, advice and products on the internet. TV has several cooking programs on its schedule and reality shows such as Masterchef have a large audience. Even series explaining how the backstage of restaurants work or how to make them successful also can be found.

Eating becomes an activity centered on tasting, information, options and individual tastes. In a way, there is a reflexive culturalization of the pleasures of the mouth: food and drink are part of the hypermodern aestheticization of individualized ways of life and consumption. In other words, the “gourmetization” of everything. A customer goes to a place not to simply have a meal, but “to live an experience”, preferably to be registered in social networks.

We also see the success of books and cooking courses, the fever of winemaking meetings, shops with a wide variety of items, from tea to beers, spices and a variety of grains, some of them teaching how to prepare dishes in loco that are later taken home, guided tours in wineries and commented tastings.

There are contradictions on the trend, however: the "neo-eater" denounces bad food, search for the natural, wants to know the origin, worries about authenticity and the freshness of the ingredients, privileges quality and the organic, seeks to balance meals, is obsessed with weight, health and hygiene issues. However, in the time of physical inactivity, junk food and nutritional disorders, obesity has become a worldwide scourge.

"To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art." (Fran?ois de la Rochefoucauld *).

Savoring the dish and enjoying the moment with whoever is at the table is not enough. It needs to be shared.?The hashtag “food” on Instagram has almost 500 million images published. On Facebook, some profiles are exclusively dedicated to sharing images of food. Delish and Tasty Demais, profiles I like on Instagram, are followed by 2.8 and 4.8 million people, respectively.?

For a restaurant owner, perhaps it makes sense to publish them, as it tells a story and can build the brand, but in the age of Instagram and Facebook, the hunger for “likes” seems far greater than the desire to enjoy food. But we could say this photo craze didn't arise on Instagram, but in the Renaissance, with the exaggeration of food images propagated in the golden age of Dutch art. It was pure ostentation: aspirational, expensive, hard-to-find foods, were portrayed not because they were being eaten, but to show status or good taste, with "exotic" lemons, lobsters and artichokes.

Some people think it's rude or inappropriate in some way (and sometimes it can be), but the convenience of smart phones has spawned an epidemic of this.??I believe it can be interesting if it has to do with cooking or with a review of the restaurant, as a friend’s opinion for me is much more valid than reading it in the media (a great chance of having been paid!).?

There might be also positive reasons for the desire of sharing such pictures. As cooking is also a creative art, food can be visually attractive and beautiful, not to mention the taste appeal. Or someone just wants to keep a memory of a nice moment. Cooking is not easy too, so it may because something wonderful was created that the cooker would like to share joy and triumph with its friends. Food is also best enjoyed when shared with a community.?And finally, if it is related to a recipe, it is much more helpful if it comes with a picture.?

At the end, it is a personal choice, everyone can have different reasons. It's similar to the reason many people post shots of their incredible beach vacation, their new car, their new house, etc. In case of food, some are posting after seeing their friends posting it or — who knows — just because most of us have become addicted to social media.??To take the picture or not, to share or not, being bothered or not by receiving them, is then a matter of how each one sees such action.

Talking about sharing, here are some books I've read and recommend:

Cozinha Confidencial or Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly — Flippant and funny, but vested with a deep reverence for his chosen field, Anthony Bourdain's memoir (published in 2000) tapped into a rich vein of industry lore and personal history, with a robust, witty, gossipy, outrageous, and informative prose.

O Homem que Comeu de Tudo or The Man Who Ate Everything: And Other Gastronomic Feats, Disputes, and Pleasurable Pursuits?— a collection of tasty and fun chronicles and stories by the food critic of American Vogue magazine for a long time.

And one it's on my reading pile: Reinventing the Meal: How Mindfulness Can Help You Slow Down, Savor the Moment & Reconnect with the Ritual of Eating —The American psychologist Pavel Somov, author of several books on food, brings together techniques to disconnect from technology and reconnect to food. “When we eat while checking emails or social media, we miss the opportunity to enjoy all the pleasure that a meal gives us,” he says.

(*) A greatest cultivator of the genre of maxims and epigrams, his most famous book, "Collected Maxims and Other Reflections", or Reflex?es ou senten?as e máximas morais, first appeared in 1664.

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