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South China Morning Post

Food influencers with their LED camera lights at restaurants must be stopped

Let me tell you about something that happened to me. If it sounds familiar, you have my pity. I was at a restaurant in Hong Kong that will remain unnamed. Suffice to say, it is a place I like, but not the kind of place I can visit often unless my landlord starts accepting IOUs. Nestling into the plush, intimate space, I noticed one table was getting quite a lot of attention. A glad-handing session with the chef before any food had been served was enough to confirm that they were Very Important People. Now I am, at best, a Person of Ordinary Importance, and acutely aware of it. Getting special treatment makes me feel like someone's waiting around the corner with a terminal diagnosis or a jury summons. But I do not begrudge the white-glove service for others, as long as it does not affect me or the rest of the hoi polloi. So I thought nothing of it. That is, until their dishes arrived. And out came the cameras. Not the ones we all have in our pockets, mind you. No, these were the kind you have to lug around on a strap, the kind that could inflict head trauma on a Pachycephalosaurus.