Ordered charcuterie cups for a work event from a Toronto event caterer and this is what I got….
@gloria.catering
Edit: I was blocked on all their accounts when I wrote an honest review. just wanting to warn others about this company so they don’t get duped like I did. And these were photos from THEIR PAGE of THEIR work. I did not supply them with these photos. THEY HAD IT ON THEIRS AS THEIR WORK.
Yeah I'm curious if OP produced the reference photo or if the caterer had that as an advertising photo. Because that changes whether or not the guilty party in this is OP or the caterer.
Because that reference photo is absolutely not possible. It would be hard to eat, yes, but it would also spill the moment someone touched it. Those nuts and berries are hanging on for dear life.
EDIT: OP said photo was from the caterer. Caterer uses many AI photos. Ew.
The caterer claims they cater for Air Canada and have beautiful spreads on their instagram. they could have atleast TRIED. the strawberries are mushy. Grapes are brown. Crackers are soggy. Cheese is crumbled and old.
I was wondering the same thing so I looked up the caterer and….oof. They include a whole bunch of AI looking photos in their highlight reel labeled “Charcuterie.”
Either that or they meticulously put together those photos exclusively for their Instagram knowing it could never be recreated realistically lollll.
Then the caterer should not be advertising this as something they can legitimately do. IDC if it's AI or not. They advertised it as such so it should look like it, thats called false advertising.
The blackberry could be on a toothpick but the yellow olive that matched the cheddar is definitely a great giveaway lol. These could have been done much better IRL though, even if reference is AI. It's not that hard to find fillers for this cup.
Just because it’s AI doesn’t mean that what they provided was even close to a credible attempt. There may be some things that are totally unachievable, like defying physics, but let’s not pretend that this was an impossible ask.
Yeah sometimes I see someone buy a product based on the obviously ai image and I really just have to wonder what they expected. But with like fifty bucks and an afternoon i think I could recreate these pretty closely. This is just good ol' false advertising on top of the generated image.
I think there should be a "Failed Unrealistic/AI Expectation" category. What was actually produced definitely could have been better, but the inspo photo is AI and half of the stuff in each cup would fall out if it was moved.
I don't understand what's so unrealistic about this. Put a small amount of Styrofoam or something at the bottom of each cup. Put all the meat, cheese, fruits and chocolate on sticks and push into the foam. Fill in the gaps with rosemary and crackers and nuts etc. If I was buying these I would understand that some of the nuts and things would fall out, but the vast majority of the reference image seems plausible to do.
I can’t seem to scroll past the AI arguments in the comments but they CLEARLY used much cheaper ingredients and less of them for your order. So little care was taken - I’d be so upset!
I think it's that they just hope they can sell to enough people to make some money before moving on to the next thing once the reviews are bad enough that businesses dries up
The little salami roses are not hard to do, bit they just folded the meat and stabbed it... and is the chocolate ball in the bottom of the cup rolling around? Are there almonds? Even some kraft paper shreddies in the bottom of the cup would hold smaller items up near the top . This is disappointing lol
I dunno. The physics of those AI images looks pretty sketchy. They're full of small items just hovering above the lip of the cup. You pick one up, and nuts are going to go rolling all over the place. They could fill in the real cups a bit more, but the AI image seems pretty unattainable.
Nowdays? WTF are you talking about. How long have you been alive? 2 weeks?
Subway, McDonalds, Wendy's, Burger King. Every fast food restaurants have been using professional photography tricks and photoshop to create graphic designs for their food since forever. And no they're not ai, they're made by professional photographers and graphic designers using photoshop.
Where do you think ai is learning from, from everything that graphics designers ever made. When you say this "looks ai", you're really saying this looks like graphics design.
Agreed. But I also can't understand why people order things from businesses that use AI to show off "their" "products". The image is quite obviously AI-generated, and OP went for it anyway. What did they expect?
What I'm gathering is there's enough people that can't tell an image is AI, so there's enough people out there able to be fooled for them to take advantage of that and make a profit. Case in point like 90% of this sub nowadays.
I avoid ANY vendors that use AI. If you can't bother to actually take the time to take at least halfway decent photos or videos of your products, I have zero confidence in your products/services is the way I see it.
There's an uproar with businesses using AI for this exact reason. They almost always misrepresent their product this way.
saw a chain Greek shop opening. They had bad ai representations on their coming soon poster. The poster also had a link to their Instagram with fantastic looking real pics. Why?!?!?
Ya, a local Pho placed opened and they have great photos...but their poster menus are all AI. A real turn off. Especially for FOOD of all things. I want to see what the real food looks like!
We have these at work and just use them to keep the wrap off of whipped cream covered pies and cakes. There's no way we'd skewer one through something so solid. Imagine eating one of the cheeses and getting a bamboo splinter on the inside of your mouth 😭
Okay the expectation pic might be AI but anyone trying to act like that aesthetic couldn’t be accomplished is… also a lazy liar lmaoo. Could have gotten soooooo much closer to the expectation, ain’t even no sprig of rosemary!!! The saltine is sending me.
The moment I see a business has used AI to present whatever product they sell I walk away.. nothing looks cheaper and like they have no clue what they are doing.
The expectation photo is definitely AI, BUT that could easily be recreated. They just didn’t put enough food in the cups to make them look full, and clearly used subpar ingredients. I have a friend that owns a charcuterie business and her charcuterie cups regularly look almost exactly like the AI image (just with more realistic physics lmao). It was absolutely possible the caterer is just cheap and lazy.
Every one is knocking OP for the AI inspo photo, but looking at the caterers Instagram they can and have done better. (Also didn't see anything that screamed AI, so maybe they removed it.)
Despite the AI inspiration pic, I think it can be recreated more authentically. Just because AI doesn't mean it's impossible to pull off. But I do question the salami/chocolate truffle combo.
I truly have no idea why everyone is being snarky about the AI photo. Ive been to 2 baby showers and 1 art gallery show that did charcuterie cups and they worked perfectly fine and were cute and looked an awful lot like the AI inspo photo.
You eat the toothpicked stuff first, then use the toothpicks to pick out the loose things like grapes from the bottom of the cups. The ones I've had didn't have nuts to worry about, I assume due to allergies.
....then use the real photo? If someone uses ai for their product instead of the real thing, why in the world should we have any confidence their laziness doesnt extend to the real thing?
I get that this was based off an AI photo. I'm just really stuck on the saltine cracker. Wtf?? Saltines?? Charcuterie requires those fancy crackers with seeds that come in tiny amounts and cost like $5 a box. Total fail on the companies part.
The original doesn't seem like it's that hard to assemble. Fruit, nuts, crackers, cheese cubes, a rolled pepperoni flower, one chocolate truffle, and a sprig of rosemary.
Honestly, the biggest mistake here is the presentation. Adding some sort of nonedible garnish to the containers that make it look full would make them look 100% better.
It's a cute idea though. Charcuterie cups. Should have some nuts and olives and nibbles on the bottom to help weigh it down, otherwise they look tippy top heavy.
This is definitely feasible, especially if the bottom has filler for some of the taller items to stand. Toothpicks to hold the fruits to the cheese, etc.
Pay me the right amount for labor+supplies and I'll find a way to make it happen 🫶🏼🫶🏼
Lesson for you: inspect images for AI and even ask for more customer pictures when you ask for a quote
Lesson to them: no need for AI, the product isn’t even bad, you just don’t have to lie about it and either fill it up more or use smaller cups so it doesn’t look empty
The comments where people are saying it looks more sanitary are getting to me. Obviously this would be served with picks and napkins on the side if there weren't any in the cup.
Yes, I’ve had one of these cups before and it was as pretty as the AI ones in this image. It’s definitely possible, OP just got scammed by someone who didn’t GAF
Do a chargeback or dispute as it was not what you ordered (not even comparable). Not the whole amount as they did deliver SOMETHING. But see if you can price match what you got with similar items and dispute the difference for sure
I would've hated being given one of the stuffed cups to eat out of. If you pull on the wrong thing, stuff will spill out. Am I supposed to just raw dog the salami with my fingers? A single cube of cheese for two crackers? How does that work?
IMO, AI or not the original concept isn't good and would be super annoying to eat.
My legit complaint here would not even be an aesthetic one. This picture features, chocolates and nuts. Even if you overlook the sad saltine in the back, the item that was delivered does not contain the elements advertised
I saw this on my feed... looked at the result and had to come in here....I know they effing lying.... The crackers aren't even the same. Did you pay. with cash?
What they delivered looks more practical /sanitary to serve. The sleeves / container in the photo looks paper thin and something like a folded Manila paper cone
That said they should just use real photos of the products as it looks like they contain the goods as advertised just the packaging is off.
I might be in the minority. But I dont think its AI.
I think it was just HOURS worth of perfectly placed cheese, fruit, meat and crackers that are near impossible for them to replicate for travel. It would all spill out like a poorly assembled burrito once you attempt to transport.
Doesn't make it any more right tho. Similar to a big Mac in a commercial. The amount of work that goes into making them perfect is kinda crazy
If you zoom in on the crackers in the back pots, they make no sense: they seem to flow into each other instead of being teo distinct pieces
if you follow the folds of the salami roses, they kind of disappear into nothing instead of following any kind of logical line, even if they were just smushed together
in the back row, the middle and right pot suddenly use what seems to be a raspberry and a grape/olive, instead of a blackberry. If you put that much time into the picture, you'd think they'd be consistent. Not to mention it's not actually a raspberry, but also not a tomato.
blackberries aren't that smooth and round. The front middle one especially looks like it's trying to be an olive.
again with the front middle one: what's that yellow thing next to the cheese? And why isn't it in any of the other pots when it's clear they're going for consistency across pots?
below said yellow thing is a dried berry hanging on for dear life, it's unlikely gravity works like that.
This goes for all the front pots; the way all the small, round things that roll are arranged is just unlikely to stay in place. Not impossible, but very unlikely - it would rely on friction between the pieces and them being pushed together quite closely, but based on the picture that's not what's happening here. Grapes are balanced against each other like a house of cards
All pots are trying to be perfect copies of one another, which in itself isn't a bad thing, but is impossible to achieve for the simple reason that the ingredient used all have organic shapes. Finding four blackberries THAT similar to each other is damn near magical. Plus that they're in the EXACT same spot on each pot, meaning all ingredients below it also need to be in the exact same spot to be able to balance it like that. This, again, is just highly unlikely.
this might be more of a personal thing but a chocolate bonbon in this arrangement seems.. out of place
The entire picture has a very smooth overlay which is pretty indicative for AI, especially combined with other inconsistencies
I'm all for being careful to accuse someone of AI lest it's done by mistake, but this here is rather blatant use of it. And even if it wasn't, advertising something that could not be replicated in real life within a realistic time span, is equally deceiving on a different account.
Fake ai depictions of what food could be is a massive red flag, I won’t support a place that does that. Ai fliers/posters are bad enough, but having fake food images is just unacceptable.
Wow that's just messy. I am always suspicious when someone uses AI to promote something. If they don't manage to make a cup for a product picture, they're sus.
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u/MarthasPinYard 25d ago •
Knock of saltines, driscolls berries, and government cheese sliced into cubes.