We’re all aware that how a meal is presented is nearly as important as how it tastes. The saying goes ‘You eat with your eyes first and your stomach second’. That’s why every dish we look at in a cookbook or magazine has been primped and prinked to perfection. This fussing is done by a whole sub culture of experts who go by the moniker ‘food stylist’ and their product is colloquially known as ‘food porn’. If we love the pictures, we’ll buy the book and maybe the ingredients, even if we never make the meal.
So are there other food selling tricks to attract the consumer and gain commitment? I’m glad you asked. Yes, there most certainly are. As we traipsed through Europe, an intriguing trend became apparent. We referred to them as the ‘Crazy Chefs’. They came in all shapes and sizes and their chief role was to lure in customers. Italian restaurants accounted for more than their fair share and there were a multitude in Croatia. Of course, Key West in Florida also had their own special take on the meaning of ‘chef’. I asked myself, and now ask you, ‘Does seeing a life-size representation of a Chef proffering a welcoming hand entice you to his restaurant or does it scream ‘tacky tourist trap’? Take a look and I’ll meet you at the bottom.
Berlin
Budapest
Florida Keys
Ston | Tpanj
Dalmatia | Prague
Dubrovnik
So, are you convinced by the cheeky grin and professional chef’s hat, to step inside? No? Well, I’ve saved the best ’til last. The chef below was seven-foot tall and leering at us from a slope in the town of Bled, famous for it’s Kremna Rezina. Read about it here in an earlier TIFFIN. He’d veered from ‘crazy’ to ‘scary’ and gave us a really good laugh. I have no idea why his hand is hooked up in the air like that and why his face seems to have dropped on one side like he’s had a stroke. Compelling as he was, we didn’t go in for a bite.
Bled – would you buy a meal from this man?
Update Dec 2014 – Thanks for reading. I have a 2nd post up with even more Crazy Chefs to enjoy. Hop on over to ‘The Rise of the Crazy Chefs‘ and have a laugh.
That's pretty scary. The last one looks like one of my uncles. Perhaps he's supposed to be winking.
LOL, what fun! Such an interesting post, thank you for sharing!
Maybe he has his hand 'hooked up' to allow for tourist photos – only for the very tall though. Yes, he definitely looks as though he has either had a stroke or a bad case of Bell's Palsy.
Mummy