There have been quite a few mentions of #foodporn during London Social Media Week – and the prize for getting in there first goes to LikeMinds for their 8.30am Monday morning session: Is Social Media Making or Breaking the Food Industry?
But beyond the usual conversations around whether or not you think food is sexy, if tweeting about your breakfast is boring, or if it’s socially acceptable to take photos of food while dining out, the stand-out point for me came from Michelin starred celebrity chef Tom Aikens:
“As a chef, you’ll rarely pick up the phone to ask other chefs ‘what are you cooking now?”, but with social media things have changed. Every day chefs are swapping stories, ides and photos. The new generation of chefs is sharing more. I’m really excited about the changes that will bring to the industry.”
Tom Aikens is clearly an early adopter and he’s pretty unusual. For example, he uses Tweetdeck while in the kitchen to identify “foodie people, bloggers, and industry people” coming into his restaurant. That way he knows who to look out for, and whether or not it might be worth popping over a complimentary glass of champagne. Tom’s got nearly 35 thousand followers on Twitter – a great role model for other chefs to follow.
Thanks Annie Mole for the very seductive photo.
