My goal this week was to get my food page up and running on Facebook. That happened yesterday and I am so excited. I finally have a dumping ground for my food photos and recipes. It's a page where I hope to inspire people to try new recipes. More so, it's a page where I post what I cook and bake. As is.
Last September I published a blog column titled, 'What You See Is What We Eat.' It emphasized my preference to take photos of what I cook and bake without doctoring it up to make a finished product look picture perfect.
I really wanted to say, "To make it look Pinteresty..."
I've always posted food photos on my personal Facebook page. People have asked for the recipe. Eventually, they try the recipe. Some people have sent me photos and said, "Mine came out like shit because it doesn't look like yours."
My response is always, "It's not going to come out like mine because I didn't make it." Then I tell them, "You could have 10 people making this very same recipe and all 10 finished products will look different."
Then I ask, "Did it taste good?"
More often than not, they tell me, "Yes. It was delicious. My family loved it."
Okay.
That's all that matters!
This is why I'm not a big fan of cookbooks and Pinterest. For a lot of people, the photos of the finished products can be intimidating. It shifts people into a frame of mind that whatever recipe you're trying to make should look like the picture and if it doesn't, you have failed.
That is the furthest from the truth.
Your food doesn't have to look picture perfect to taste incredibly delicious or for you to share a photo because you're proud of what you have made.
Trust me, I've been cooking and baking for 40 years and I have days when something I make comes out not-so-attractive...like this quiche I made over the Summer. My crust came out dry and it took all of my patience to get it rolled and into the pie pan. When it came time to flute the edges, I said, "F*ck it..."
A couple of weeks ago, I made homemade pizza. Total rush job on taking a photo before putting them in the oven. Looks like a slop job, but guess what? They came out awesome!
Last night, I made one of our favorite comfort food meals. I made the filling that I would use in a chicken pot pie. Instead of making the crust for a pie, I made homemade biscuits. And, I used our best China. This photo was taken seconds before we ate.
What you make doesn't have to be fancy and plated on high-end dinnerware. You don't need to sprinkle parsley on top to jazz it up. You don't need to position a perfectly polished fork on the plate.
We all know you're going to use a fork or spoon to eat. Unless you eat with your fingers. And, that's okay.
What you make only has to be 2 things. Delicious and satisfying.
What people need to do is stop being so self-reliant on food photos. Try making a recipe without looking at the photo. Without something to compare it to.
On another angle, food photos can be deceiving for a whole other reason...
Back in March, when the COVID-19 pandemic exploded, grocery store shelves were fairly empty. Aside from toilet paper and other paper products, it was almost impossible to find sugar, flour, yeast, and other ingredients for baking.
During that time, my social media feed was plastered with a photo of yeast rolls accompanied by the recipe that included flour, baking powder, salt, milk, and mayonnaise. A friend of mine shared the photo and recipe.
Just by looking at the ingredients, I instantly knew the photo was light years away from what those ingredients would yield as a finished product.
At the time, it pissed me off because dozens of people had commented on the original post and were devastated that they wasted hard to find ingredients making something that ended up in the trash.
I was pissed off enough to publish a blog column about it. You can read it here.
At the end of the day, I just want my Lisa's Bodacious Kitchen page to be fun. To inspire. To encourage people not to focus on unrealistic photos. I want people to share what they've made in the kitchen regardless of what it looks like.
I'm excited and completely looking forward to this adventure...
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