It's a rainy December morning and the scene taking place at a long dining table in New
York City’s swanky Petrossian Boutique & Cafe feels straight out of a Portlandia sketch. My six dining companions are crouched in various positions I thought only yoga masters could achieve. They are pointing portable lights and pricey DLSR cameras at two plates of French toast. The group is part of a cadre of food Instagrammers, whose accounts boast 100,000 or more followers, and who have restaurants and their publicists scrambling to get one of their dishes on their influential accounts.
They are Elite Foodstagrammers.
And they are clamoring to take photos of French toast as if it were actually Beyonce. Christine Yi, better known as @cy_eats on Instagram, holds a brick-like light with her left hand, illuminating the toast from overhead as Mike Chau, the guy behind @foodbabyny, zooms in on the dish with his iPhone camera, elbows hovering at a very uncomfortable-looking angle. "Am I holding the light high enough?" Yi asks.
Jeremy Jacobowitz, the singular person behind the plural-sounding @brunchboys, cuts the French toast in half and stacks it upon itself, before raising up his portable light in one hand and his heavy DSLR with the other to get the right shot. My biceps hurt watching him hold the pose for a good three minutes straight like his life depended upon it. Daryl Zweben, one half of the sister duo behind @unbuttoningpants, sees an opportunity to take advantage of Jacobowitz's light and tilts her phone just so, while her sister Ali snaps the same plate from across the table. https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/food-instagrammers-restaurant-industry-power-players/food-and-drink
