Food Porn in Frederick?

Ok -- so I'm at this great restaurant downtown on Saturday night for a few cocktails (delicious, btw) and a little hangtime with a few of the girls. There's a large flat panel tv in the bar (isn't there one EVERYWHERE now?) but it's off, which it totally cool with me because I find them to be very distracting, when all of the sudden the bartender flips it on. No big deal I guess and I'm waiting for football or basketball or whatever sport they're playing now so that I can try to ignore it when the picture comes up on screen.

So I'm waiting and I realize that it's not broadcast tv, it's (wait for it, wait for it), a LIVE FEED FROM THE KITCHEN. Seriously. Cameras are focused on the plating area in the kitchen, just a few feet away. You can make out the plates being assembled (with great care), the chef pointing and checking plates, sauces being laid out, everything being put together at once to go out with a flourish etc. etc. etc.

I was totally surprised and honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about it. One part of me was totally turned-on (in a foodie way thankyouverymuch) and feeling a little voyeuristic, while another part was again, distracted. I work in food (it seems really sexy to some, but in truth is usually sweaty with aching knees and feet and no evidence of "the pretty" and dagnabit at my age I seriously need "the pretty" every once and a while...) and because of that I sometimes want to be removed from kitchen activity and just have things magically appear in front of me without a thought as to the hard work involved in putting out even the most simple of plates.

BUT, this is a gorgeous kitchen and seems to run like a very well-tuned machine, despite not being open terribly long, so in some pretty cool ways, it was a treat. There was no sound, thankfully, so you could tune in and out in your brain as you wanted. Me? I became a little obsessed and was no good to talk to while the kitchen feed was live (until Twilight came up, but that's a story for a different time...).

What do you think about this? Is it a new trend? It is for the truly food-obsessed? Good? Bad? Just bring me my drink darn it? Hmmmmmm...