Use ChatGPT to make playful daily social posts for a family restaurant, starting from photos of your real dishes
Federico Cavatore, who runs the family-owned Cavatore Italian Restaurant in Houston, in the Houston Chronicle
He turned to ChatGPT to make the restaurant's social media imagery in wide-ranging styles, most of them plainly not real: a caricature of his employees washing dishes, the pope inviting guests for Lenten specials, and a real photo of his salmon dijon penne edited so it floats in front of a warm, blurred restaurant interior.
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The problem
When his sister retired in December, he was left to run the family restaurant alone: accounting, HR, day-to-day work and marketing. He came to dread setting up social media posts every day.
What happened
Longtime customers complimented him on the playful approach on the restaurant's Facebook page. "It's been amazing. It really has helped quite a bit," he said. "I love it, and it's a lot of fun." No time or money figures given. The same article reports diner backlash against fake-looking food photos at other places, so keep food images real.
Quoted in the source: Federico Cavatore, Cavatore Italian Restaurant. Source: Houston Chronicle: Are those food photos real? AI images are popping up in Houston restaurant posts (2026-04-09) · Added 2026-11-07.
How to set it up yourself
- What Cavatore Italian Restaurant uses: ChatGPT to make its social media images.
- Keep the food real: start from your own phone photo of the dish and only change the background or add text. Save the obviously-cartoon ideas for fun posts (staff jokes, holidays, specials).
- Once a week, use the prompt below to plan seven posts and their captions in one sitting.
- Watch the comments. If customers say the food looks fake, go back to plain real photos, as another Houston owner in the same article did.
Copy-paste prompt
I run {RESTAURANT NAME}, a family-owned {CUISINE} restaurant in {CITY}. Plan seven Facebook and Instagram posts for next week: {SPECIALS AND EVENTS}. For each post, give a short, warm caption in my voice (friendly, a little funny, no hashtags spam), and describe one image idea. For any post about a dish, the image must be my own attached photo of that dish with only the background or text changed. For fun posts (staff, holidays), suggest an obviously cartoon-style image so no one mistakes it for real food.We set up one AI automation in your tools, live within 48 hours of getting access, for $197. No call needed. Founding price for our first 10 customers (regular $297).
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Tools used
ChatGPT
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Checked prices: ChatGPT: from Free $0; Go $8/mo; Plus $20/mo; Pro $100/mo (verified 2026-11-09)
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