Less Trend, More Impact: The Great Illusion of the Trend

Todo restaurante que se rende ao algoritmo está flertando com o próprio esquecimento.
Overcooking da vida digital.

Every restaurant that surrenders to the algorithm is flirting with its own oblivion.
The overcooking of digital life.
I’ve been thinking about this — for quite a while, actually.
And I believe it’s time to speak this truth — a truth you’ve probably felt in your skin, but never had the time — or courage — to put into words.
A truth that squirms and even screams in the silence after service, in the emptiness that follows when the hype fades, in the frustration of seeing a dish go viral and then die (sometimes as a meme — which is even worse...), in the daily effort to keep a flame burning that, deep down, you know no longer lights or warms anything.

The truth is that the obsession with trends is draining and hollowing out the soul of gastronomy.

We live in a time where cooking became performance, restaurants became stages, and dishes became content.
“Make it food porn — that’ll do the trick.”
And if you’re not careful, your legacy becomes foam.

And foam doesn’t feed.
Doesn’t nourish.
Doesn’t endure.
It stays on the surface.

So what I’m writing here isn’t about marketing, or what’s trending on TikTok, or the latest buzzwords like “immersive experience” or “emotional cuisine” someone from branding came up with.
What I’m talking about is what remains after all of that fades.
What survives the test of time.
What truly matters.
What is essence.

The Golden Trap of the Hype

Surely, like me, you’ve noticed that almost no one talks deeply about food anymore?
They talk about concepts. Narratives. Aesthetics. What "drives engagement."
But about food — the kind born from memory, sweat, and story — almost nothing.

It’s as if gastronomy has been hijacked by a machine that demands novelty all the time.
I’m not talking about innovation (which is important and has its place), but rather the frantic pursuit of something no one even knows what it is. Feed updates and a misguided chase for attention.
And that machine doesn’t care what you think. (But you should.)

It wants clicks. It wants pretty lights. It wants catchy phrases and fast cuts.
Every week, a new trend.
Every trend, a new promise.
Every promise, another restaurant bending — and breaking — to fit into a mold that was never made for them.

And in the end, what’s left?
Burnt-out chefs.
Lost teams.
Brands with no identity.
And customers who came only for the “Instagrammable moment.”

They checked off the photo box and never returned.
Maybe they didn’t understand. Or maybe you communicated the wrong message.

You know what the real problem is?
While everyone’s chasing the next fad, no one’s building anything that lasts.
It’s image fast food: pretty in the display, empty in flavor.

“But we can’t just ignore social media, right?”

Of course not.
It would be madness to turn your back on the digital world.
But you must understand that using digital is very different from being used by it.

The problem isn’t showing up on Reels.
The problem is becoming a slave to its language.
It’s when feed aesthetics start to matter more than the ethics of your dish.
It’s when your restaurant’s story is reduced to a dance challenge.

Yes, you should communicate.
But with purpose. With truth. With strategy.
Yes, you can use audiovisual tools.
But use them to tell what no one else is telling.
To show the behind-the-scenes. To reveal the truth behind technique, origin, creative decisions.

When everything is a trend, nothing becomes a brand.
When everything is foam, no one remembers the taste.

Substance doesn’t go viral. But it lasts.

There’s a reason some names last for decades.
And it’s not because they adapted to every passing trend.
It’s because they knew what they were building.
They had clarity.
They had the courage to stand by an idea, even when no one else understood.

These names don’t show up every month on Instagram’s “Explore” page.
But when they do, everyone stops to listen.
Because they have something most don’t: substance.

And substance doesn’t scream.
It echoes.

And strategic documentary-style audiovisual storytelling is a surgical tool for that.
Not just a pretty video with a drone and epic music.
But a tool of memory, identity, and brand building with soul.

It’s about renting more and more space in the minds of the right people.

You can have the most awarded restaurant in town.
But if you don’t document why you exist, if you don’t preserve how you got here, tomorrow you become just another forgotten post, lost to a careless thumb swipe.
Or a sudden pandemic.

Less foam. More courage.

You don’t have to become a character to please an audience.
You don’t need to buy into every “disruptive” idea some marketing influencer pitched at a conference.

You just need to go back to the foundation.
The why, the how, the for whom, and the because of whom.

Rediscover the essence.
Remember why you started.
And communicate that with truth.

Maybe you’re afraid of seeming “stuck in the past.”
But holding firm to your essence is not refusing to evolve.
It’s choosing which direction to take — not being pushed by every passing wind.

In almost 15 years of running Cafeteria Filmes Co., we’ve seen this happen up close.
Chefs who walked away from the illusion of hype and decided to tell their story with clarity, with depth — and yes, with aesthetics — but aesthetics in service of truth, not empty engagement.

And the result wasn’t just more followers.
It was respect.
It was consistency.
It was coherence.
It was experience.
It became legacy.

What do you want to leave behind in this world?

That’s the real question — for me, too.

Do you want to be remembered as “that restaurant that made pretty dishes for Instagram”?
Or as someone who marked a generation, who influenced other chefs, who transformed your city’s food culture?

Do you want customers who show up for a post?
Or for a purpose?

Do you want foam?
Or substance?

If you also feel like it’s time to leave the surface behind and dive deep into what truly matters — I’m here.
To study, understand, document, translate, reveal, and position what’s most valuable in your story.

So I leave us with this question:
Will we follow the trend of the month —
or build a name and a story that time can’t erase?

Let’s be substance.

A warm coffee and a present mind,
Renan.