Gross!

Whilst scouring the Internet for a recipe worthy to christen my new Crock Pot, I am reminded over and over of the old wisdom:

Food Web loggers, ahem.

Leave the food photography to the pros!

I am not normally elitist. For instance I hate when a recipe is described as "restaurant style." Aren't restaurants supposed to be imitating home cooking? I also hate the term "home cook." I am trying to talk myself out of that but have not been able to.

However. Pictures are a different matter.

God knows I am not squeamish when it comes to food. I love to eat! It is one thing that brought me and Leonard Pennario together.

But the pro food photographers -- haha, it is early in the day and that almost came out "phood fotographers" -- have gifts that we normal people with our pocket digital cameras do not. Face it.

I have been guilty of amateur food photography too, God knows. So has Howard. Sometimes if dinner looks especially good Howard takes a picture of it. Which cheers me and flatters me, but then the picture goes on line and, ahem, something is lost in translation.

Today I resolve, I take no more pictures of food. I could not believe the pictures I found online on other people's Web logs in just five minutes of searching for chicken and cauliflower curry in a Crock Pot. This shot at the top is just the beginning.

Is this a plate or a Petri dish?

Photographing a half-empty dish does not improve things.

This dish should have stayed an ancient Chinese secret.

Bone appetit!

Two sage pieces of kitchen advice:

Stand facing the stove (from "The Joy of Cooking") ... and ...

Step away from the camera!