- Sign reading, ‘No photos, please’ erected at The Waterside Inn in Bray, Berks
- Top restaurant founded by celebrated chefs brothers Michel and Albert Roux
- The pair have banned photos after fearing customers are ignoring the flavours
Chefs Michel and Albert Roux have banned diners from taking photographs of their food at their Michelin-starred restaurant.
Michel Roux, who founded The Waterside Inn in Bray, Berkshire, alongside his brother said he wanted guests to focus on the taste instead.
He said: ‘What are they doing? Maybe once during the meal you want to take a little photo of something because it’s unusual.
‘But what about the flavours? A picture on a phone cannot possibly capture the flavours.’
‘No photos, please’: Brothers Albert and Michel Roux (left and right) who founded The Waterside Inn are asking diners at their celebrated restaurant not to Instagram their meals
To stop the growing trend, the brothers have placed a card up in their coveted eatery reading: ‘No photos, please’.
A quick search on Instagram reveals hundreds of diners have been posting photographs of their dishes at the restaurant in recent months.
Captioning the image of one starter, a man wrote he ‘couldn’t remember the name of the dish’.
Since the launch of the social media platform in 2010, restaurateurs have been divided in their appreciation of the trend to photograph one’s food.
While the free publicity is greatly received, the Rouxs fear the dishes are being left unappreciated and are being eaten cold while diners fuss over filters.
Research carried out by Waitrose last year found one n five people had taken a picture of their food in the past month.
The rate is five times higher for under-34s than the over-55s.
Michel Roux said he was upset by diners at the Waterside Inn in Bray, Berkshire, who whipped out their phones and took pictures of their meals to post on social media.
The other jewel in the Roux restaurant empire, Le Gavroche, also takes a more relaxed approach.
The chefpatron, Michel Roux Jr, Albert’s son, said last year that he banned ringtones at the table but had been known to take pictures himself.
No such pictures appeared in his book, however. He told The Times last month: ‘It’s a statement, isn’t it? Does the Bible have pictures?’