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    Sunday, April 28, 2024

    Show me your food porn

    Photo by Tim Cook/The Day, illustration by Alex Nunes
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    I think everybody remembers where they were when they saw food porn for the first time. For me, I was 13 years old and my friend Brian and I were snooping around in his older brother's bedroom. I thought I'd open the dresser drawer to see if any candy was in there.

    But to my surprise and delight, from the bottom of the drawer a glossy copy of Gourmet magazine stared up at me. An enormous burger with cheese oozing everywhere graced the cover. My eyes were further invited in by the seductive dusting of salt on the side of fries.

    Well, I have to say that actually never happened. But it's scenarios like this that came to mind when I first heard the term "food porn."

    For anyone who doesn't know about food porn, I think Wikipedia gives a pretty good definition:

    "Food porn is a glamourised spectacular visual presentation of cooking or eating in advertisements, infomercials, cooking shows or other visual media,[1] foods boasting a high fat and calorie content,[2] exotic dishes that arouse a desire to eat or the glorification of food as a substitute for sex."

    If you're still not getting it, this tumblr page should clear things up.

    I think I've been into food porn for years and didn't realize it until now. I love looking at photos of deep fried Oreos, barbeque sandwiches just piled unnaturally high with pork, or a pizza just swimming in cheese. I think my dream would be to see a nice picture of one of those brie cheese bread bowls—something tasteful with the cheese oozing over the top and the bread squares to the side looking nice and toasty.

    But as much as I like the idea of food porn, I find the term a little funny. It raises a lot of questions.

    For instance, if there is such a thing as food porn, are there also food pornographers? And do any food pornographers specialize in niche food pornography, like maybe burger on fry action?

    Anyways, I'd like to make a photo gallery of reader food porn. So, if you've taken some good pictures of anything from overstuffed lobster rolls to over-glazed cinnamon buns, send them to me at a.nunes@theday.com.

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