Anthony Bourdain Has Strong Feelings About Food Photos on Instagram

Most people talk about Instagram food photography in terms of pure-hearted love and innocent goodness. “Oh, I just wish I could bring all my friends along to the south of France with me!”

The idea of inciting Instagram envy must never cross such a person’s mind while posting beautifully composed photos of white truffle pasta in Lake Como, with a view of George Clooney’s house in the background. But Anthony Bourdain is not one to pretend to be a fuzzy bunny, and he’s willing to admit that Instagram food photography can be “an instrument of aggression.”

“I don’t want people to feel good when I take a picture of this amazing meal I’m having,” he said in an interview with Time‘s Megan Leonhardt. “I want them to feel bad. I’m very much guilty of the, ‘Look what I’m eating and you’re not. I hope you’re eating Cheetos right now.'”

I’ll make sure to lick the orange dust off my fingers before looking at Bourdain’s Instagram account from now on, but it’s actually surprisingly light on food photos. When he does post them, though, he sure makes them count.

What’s on your omelette? Cheetos? That sounds nice. This one just has an ice cream scoop of caviar on top of it. (Memo to self: Make Cheetos omelettes happen.)

Just hanging out in Seattle, no big deal. I imagine Bourdain thinking, “I’m not even going to mention what this is. I’m just going to type ‘Seattle,’ like I don’t even know they’re all drooling into their keyboards.”

I just remembered that I have all the ingredients for cacio e pepe in my kitchen right now. Thanks, Bourdain!

Bourdain does believe in sharing travel photos on social media, but he doesn’t like the idea of shooting absolutely everything and focusing on the photos to the detriment of the travel experience.

“If you’re shooting everything, you’ll be looking at your phone half the time rather than Paris,” he said. “And, my God, it’s Paris!”

But if someone serves you a handful of caviar, go ahead and take a picture, because that’s the sort of thing that has to be seen to be believed.