Are There Ethics in Food Styling?

i cater small parties and presentation is so important to getting one's appetite going! we do some of our own food design at home without realizing it. We use lemon juice to keep apples from browning, is that not similar to spraying water on leaves to keep them looking fresh through a photo shoot?

It's advertising, plain and simple. Advertisers have made a business out of making things (food, clothes, etc.) look as appealing as possible. I don't know that there should be any ethical considerations, outside of using the same products...I can't say I'm a fan of Crisco ice cream because I'd like to see the prettied-up product, not some pretty approximation of the product.

Are there really people who are upset that their food doesn't look like it does in pictures? If you want food that looks like it does in pictures, take the author's advice: cook and style your food at home. It's not that difficult.

the last couple paragraphs really make sense. simple things like how we place our food on our plates and what kind of dishes we use can make a huge difference in how appealing our food looks. i've noticed that high-end (5-star and 4-star) restaurants really exploit this tactic. the food they serve is just okay, but the presentation is what seems to make people shell out the $$.

My boyfriend's dad (military dude) said that he's never seen a McDonald's burger look like the picture anywhere in the world...but in Japan.

So we're in Japan last summer and of course we had to go to "Makudonarudo" and yeah, it looked pretty much like the picture. Japan's really visual, though. All the restaurants have little fake versions of the menu items in a glass display outside, and yes, the food you order looks exactly like the fake one.

In my opinion the size of the food is often more deceptive than the styling of the food. When we see an ads with food picture from a luxury dining restaurant, we can expect to see similar food with albeit less in portion. In fast food chain both aspects are deceptive though, the size of the food and the styling of the food don't match the advertisement.

I don't have a problem with food styling. The business is to sell you the food and to do that it must look its best. I like the tips at the end, you eat with your eyes first.

Yes this is definenatly a marketing tactic that you see used very heavily in nice restaurants where each dish costs you $30+

Food styling is no more deceptive than the models with the PERFECT hair in the shampoo ads. You KNOW your hair would never look like that unless you spend hours blow drying it, using just the right amount of product, flatironing it, using tons of bobby pins to get the strays out of place, etc. I don't think food styling's any different. At my job, we have to photograph food for clients and we hire food stylists to come to make sure the product looks as good as it possibly can. It's not like they use fake food...they just make sure to use only the onion rings that are perfectly shaped and the perfect shade of brown. They also use the best possible lighting to make sure everything looks amazing.

I like the idea of trying to make your own food as visually appealing as possible. When I went to Ukraine, I got invited to have dinner with a family for New Year's Eve. They made a baked fish and it looked amazing...they sliced the fish and put orange slices in it and garnished it with orange "flowers" and parsley. It looked so pretty we almost didn't want to cut into it!

In my opinion, food styling is an accepted cheating.

Indeed, a professional food stylist starts with all the identical pieces parts as presumably our meals start with.

Except, it is not the same. Mine will travel flash frozen for potentially hundreds of miles, squashed in small containers, reshaped, defrosted, tossed and turned, till it looks nothing like the artful picture I saw plastered on the front window of the eatery.

I understand that it is not the food stylist job to watch their clients' ethics.

But, If it is not "lying" and "deceptive", how come it feels so wrong?

Ms. Hagan, you do beautiful work. I wish I could afford your work for my cooking videos and slide shows.

I live in Spain where there are a lot more small, family-owned restaurants and, as a result, a lot of very unprofessional promotional photos adverstising their food. There's a Chinese restaurant near my house that actually has a picture of a dish with a grossly overcooked fried egg on top. Needless to say, I've never eaten there. I'm not going to say that food styling is unethical, but more realistic, less appealing photos certainly make a lot of "bad" food a lot less tempting.

I think most of us know that we're not going to get food that looks like the picture. Back when I used to eat hashed browns - I'd often point to the picture when ordering and ask the server to please have them cooked like that (instead of the plate of raw shreddred potatoes you usually get).

I have to admit, I really love looking at pictures of food. I like those posters with things like tomatoes or garlic on them. I have ceramic veggies hanging in my house. I have often thought that I would have a lot of fun working as a food stylist. Food can be really fun. One of my favorite things about this time of year is looking at the fun things they come up with all over the store - how they make all the food so very pretty.

I figure if I can't eat it, I can at least look at it and appreciate it's visual and artistic value. So, as far as I'm concerned food stylists can do whatever they want. It just creates purely guilt free pleasure for us "food voyeurs".