When you go to a restaurant and have a delicious meal placed in front of you, it's natural to be in awe.  Thanks to smartphones and social media, it's not uncommon for people to post photos of their food on the web for all to see.  Also when these pictures go up, they're up there forever.  Naturally, those in the kitchen of gourmet restaurants have mixed opinions on letting these pictures hit the internet.  Several men who work in gourmet cooking careers share their opinions with CNN's Eatocracy blog. 

Many of the men questioned were originally not fans of the use of photography in their restaurants.  They were concerned with people taking non appetizing photos of their half-eaten food or the food itself getting cold while the patron uses 5 minutes to take a photo.  But in the long run, the chefs have found the positives in allowing their diners to shoot pictures. 

“It helps document our cuisine. Quite often, we'll cook a meal for someone because they ask for a tasting menu, and we'll come up with a lot of it spontaneously and I won't remember half of it at the end of the night. If someone puts that up on Flickr, then there's like a log — it's documentation,” said Sean Brock, owner of two restaurants in South Carolina.  “Also, if you know that a good number of people in your dining room are taking pictures of the food, you tend to make cleaner plates.”

What do you think of this practice?