On today's episode of The Eater episode, Greg and I are sitting in the studio with Chef

J.J. Johnson, he's the executive chef of Minton's, a legendary jazz club with really good food in Harlem and

up until very recently also the executive chef of the Cecil which is now also called

mintons and is sort of the same thing. But the point is

J.J. is here and we'll be talking with J.J. in just a minute.

Okay, so Helen I had a, there's something I want to talk with you about. I ordered

a bull of F. at a Vietnamese restaurant and I was by myself and you know as I do with any food I order I took a photo of it using my iPhone and I you know maybe adjusted it styled it a little bit and as I was

eating this dish I realized I remembered that like this restaurant I was at had been recommended to me on the basis that they served

really good Bond Me and not the Fuh. But I wanted to get the fun. One reason why is because I knew that I wanted to take a photo of that instead of the sandwich.

Oh damn.

Yeah, it seems like it would be a fun challenge to shoot that and the light was really good where I was and it was the first moment where I realized that I actually ordered something because I wanted to take a photo of it.

I'm not sure if this is going to make you feel better or feel worse.

Okay.

But I will tell you the truth, which is I do this all the fricking time.

This makes me feel better, yeah.

I will go so far as to request tables by the window so I can use natural light or even eat dinner at

ungodly early time so that the sun hasn't set yet and I can make sure that the

light on my food that I'm gonna photograph is gonna be pretty. yeah, I have ordered something because I think it will be prettier.

Well, that makes me feel good. I mean, I wasn't necessarily feeling bad at this moment. It was just kind of funny that I realized it, I think think because I wasn't conscious of the fact

that I was making that decision for that reason but also I was thinking you know what that's like a

healthy reason to want to order something I, aren't the visuals just as important?

And, you know, it's kind of like a weird, quiet, silent

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