From Fondue to Foie gras

Drama cuts across America as food enthusiasts, armed with digital cameras, tripods and lights, click memories of their nights out eating.

Am I talking about taking snapshots of their friends and dinner guests?

Nope.

Do I mean celebrating life’s milestones like getting engaged or reaching retirement?

Hardly.

What else is left except the food on their plates, the chairs at the table, the table itself, the waiters, silverware, chef.

Jackpot.

A growing group of foodies believe that meals should be visually enjoyed before physically eaten, so they’ve made it an art of taking pictures to remember what they’re about to consume.

And I’m not just talking about gourmet creations.

According to P.J. Huffstutter of the Wall Street Journal, people save memories of their 7-Eleven hotdogs to the butter dish at the Michelin three-star restaurant.  The trend’s exploded as the food culture’s swept across TV and the internet, transforming our chefs into celebrities and foodies into worshipers.

Flickr, the photo sharing website, has seen the number of pictures tagged in the group, “I Ate This,” climb from 20,000 to 307,000.

Camera manufacturers, too, have jumped on the bandwagon.  Nikon, Sony, and Olympus now sell cameras offering food or cuisine settings.

And food bloggers tweet and yak 24/7 online.

So is this good and meaningful, peaceful and cultured?

Well Sarah Palin’s not involved, so that’s a positive point. And it’s got nothing to do with the tea party,the health care plan, Iran, or Afghanistan.

It’s all about the chefs, who slave over their stoves and are flattered by the sudden attention, and the finished products that they produce.

But lately even the cooks are getting annoyed.

They’re aggravated that picture taking’s slowing down the service and disrupting restaurant operations. Regular customers complain about the glare of lights and the snapping of shutters, often demanding another table away from the glare.

And thing’s are getting worse, though the foodies are oblivious.

“I’m sharing my experiences with my friends,” said Hong Pham, who runs the blog, the Ravenous Couple. “Why shouldn’t I share what inspires me?”

One restaurant reported that a man ordered a table for two, then reserved another table for his camera equipment.   No money was made at the second table.

And if the foodie is taking photos of every course in a ten course dinner, that could delay the service an hour longer, which means other reservations are backed up, and those waiting get frustrated, and angry

A friend of ours saw this camera scene in action.   First it looked cute: the guy backing up from his table to theirs, trying to catch a wide-angle view of his dinner.

He clicked about thirty times.  Mission over achieved.  But then he kept standing, oohing and ahhing at something that looked and smelled like a regular pepperoni pizza before asking his girlfriend to bite into a piece.

That was the big deal?       
                                                        
Bending to catch the image, his cargo shorts slid a couple inches below his hips.  Bending further, the top of his crack peeked through.

Our friend should’ve been taking the photo behind the photo but resisted.

So I beg to ask the question.  Is this love, and how come I don't feel it? 
And what have I been missing all these years?