Foodporn: The evolution of food as visual spectacle in cinema and social media

The phenomenon of ‘foodporn’ has evolved from cinematic depictions of the link between eros and food into an intense social media trend. With over 350 million posts, food content now represents nearly a quarter of the most viewed videos online. This digital era has shifted the focus toward immediate, visual, and highly stimulating content where food serves as a medium for collective voyeurism.

A new trend has emerged involving ‘sexy chefs,’ where the preparation of a dish becomes a theatrical, often eroticized performance. In these short-form videos, the recipe often serves merely as a narrative pretext for the creator's physical appeal and stylized movements.

Cinema has long played a role in this sensory experience. Films such as ‘Chocolat’ (2000), starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, use highly inviting imagery of chocolates and pastries to create a sense of temptation that can be difficult for viewers to ignore.