Is social media killing our chefs?

You're damned if you do, damned if you don't and ruined if you do it wrong. Welcome to the tech-noir thriller that is the restaurant industry in 2017, where social media rules.

A decade ago, the dialogue around social and food was pretty positive. Breathless articles were penned about chefs connecting, collaborations rising. It was the medium that launched a thousand food trucks, allowed businesses to reach their audiences direct and gave Real People the chance to write Real Reviews, which I'm sure no one in the industry regrets.

Now, a decade plus into this social experiment, the conversation is turning darker. And so it should. Can a restaurant even hope to be successful if its social isn't strong? Is anyone cooking original food anymore? Are we one day going to be faced by a frankenfood so depressing that we'll just have to end it all?

The answer is yes. And no. And that it's a far more complicated than we think.

Chef Ben Shewry has already touched on the effect social can have on young chefs (page 8). He worries the instant judgment from diners and critics means there's no space given to nurturing dishes, so fewer risks are being taken. But the problem goes deeper.

"We've bred an entire generation of chefs who don't know that most of what's online is bullshit," says Shewry. "There's so much that's fake and manipulated. You see a beautiful picture of a dish and you know that the person who posted it doesn't have the ability to reproduce it at that level time and again for 100 people."

And maybe that seems more a problem for diners, but Shewry thinks the noise is damaging for everyone. "There's this perception that everything is perfect. And it's created this insane level of self-comparison. I've spoken to a lot of young chefs lately who are off social now. They see this person who they don't rate getting all this attention, while they're working hard and and not getting any, and it's too much. They're off it and they feel better for it."

Kat Kinsman, who last year founded Chefs with Issues, an online support page where chefs can share their problems, has noticed the pressures of Instagram and Yelp in particular. "Chefs are hearing from their PR teams that in order to be relevant, they must be pushing out images that will stand out from the fray and entice diners to come in. Suddenly, they're not just chefs—they have to be marketers, too, and who has the time (or budget) for that?"

It's not a problem exclusive to the restaurant industry. And the positives are there. Mitch Orr, chef-owner of Sydney's ACME says "there's huge power in having direct access to an audience. We post a new dish and it lets people know our menu isn't stagnant."

That's become a pretty essential marketing model for most restaurants. With publications now forced to review earlier and earlier to maintain relevance, Orr notices that "new restaurants used to have six months of press, now you can be done with all your reviews in a month."

For many that means quitting social wouldn't be an option. "Especially in fickle Sydney where there's a new restaurant to go to every week. You have to do everything you can to let people know there's always a reason to come back."

It then becomes a matter of perspective. Restaurateur Chris Lucas, whose Chin Chin empire rose on the back of early, strong social thinks the bad is outweighed by the good, as long as you treat it lightly.

"We see social as an opportunity to be creative, have a voice. And when we get bad feedback we use it. In the past, customers might leave without complaining and never come back, today they often tell us and it helps us improve."

Plenty of restaurateurs and chefs have developed a thicker skin in recent years when it comes to taking and responding to external criticism.

Shewry says of a backhanded compliment left on Attica's page (a rave review that started with ''My friends don't rate Attica, but'') he wanted to post, "Who are your friends, I'm going to hunt them down." It's the internal war that's the new battleground.

Both Orr and Shewry stress it's so important for chefs and businesses to be real. They can appreciate when chefs use it as a tool. Orr thinks chef Colin Fassnidge's pork-heavy feed is boring, but "those pictures help him sell 12 whole pigs every time he posts."

The take home message is that social media is a useful tool, but it's not real.

Shewry says, "If you're going to be on there you need to have a bit of resilience, and don't be so concerned about your image. Be concerned about your image in your community. Worry about whether the alley behind your business is dirty and if it is, clean it up. And don't post a pic of you cleaning it. Because that's real. That's what counts."