Too Much Ego and Too Little Gastronomy

Bep Al·lès/Ciutadella - It had never been so easy to recommend a restaurant. A mobile phone, a social network and an opinion are enough. In a matter of seconds, any dish can become content and any diner a gastronomic recommender/critic.

The democratisation of criticism has positive aspects. It has opened windows for small businesses, given visibility to unknown projects and brought gastronomy closer to a much wider audience. But it has also generated a new species within the culinary ecosystem: the influencer who talks more about themselves than about what they eat.

It is increasingly common to find videos where the protagonist is not the restaurant, nor the cook, nor the product. The protagonist is the person recording. The camera focuses on their face, their exaggerated reactions, their rehearsed gestures and their definitive statements. The dish becomes a mere accessory to the personal narrative.

It is truly sad to see how the ability to make an impact is valued more than the ability to explain. The viral phrase more than the context. The fashionable venue more than the work behind it. The result is a gastronomy reduced to the rapid consumption of images and instant emotions.

Meanwhile, essential questions disappear from the narrative: who produces that food, what its season is, what territory it represents or what story it tells. Knowledge gives way to spectacle.

This is not about demanding qualifications or badges of authority. Gastronomy must be open and plural. But influencing entails responsibility. When a recommendation can fill or empty a restaurant, it is appropriate to demand something more than a good ability to generate clicks. Ethics, professionalism, experience in the world of gastronomic journalism, honesty and simplicity must be demanded.

Perhaps the problem is not that there are too many gastronomic influencers. Perhaps the problem is that some have forgotten that gastronomy is not about them. It is about what is on the plate. About a serious, professional and credible narrative.

And between the plate and the mirror, more and more people are choosing the mirror, asking themselves, as the queen did in the tale of Snow White: “Mirror, mirror... who is the best of them all?”.