You might not like what I’m about to say. You might totally disagree with me and probably want to burn my PC into a molten pile of plastic goo.
But you just know, that I don’t care.
There’s a “high” class food craze blowing into every little bit of our lives. Celebrity chefs are everywhere hawking their injection molded, made in third-world country (or worse), wares at astronomical prices. Of course, it’s always happy-happy, all accompanied with the “you too can cook like me” smiles all over the boxed answers to culinary mastery.
It’s not just on kitchen wares. You see more and more smiling “buy my sauce” faces slapped on every bottle, baggie, and powder packet, down every aisle in your local grocery store.
Sometimes it’s just plain scary. Try to look at one of those “faces”. Look long enough and you see a smug smile, almost a sneer coming back at you. The chef is saying “you can’t cook like me, you need this hydrogenated prod of mine”.
Creepy. At least with Mrs. Butterworth, Aunt Jemima, Dough-Boy and Hamburger Helper-Glove Guy look like they could give me a warm hug. Even the Green Giant is friendly enough.
To say anything against this “trend” is likened to screaming fire in the ol’ cliched crowded theater.
It’s true. Say you’re disgusted by it and people look at you like you’ve got two heads and growing a third out of your arm pit. It’s the “what’s wrong with you” look with accompanying cringed foreheads and squished eyebrows.
The classic look of sheer disdain.
Right about now, you think there’s something wrong with me. What, pass up a poulet au jus du merde d’or (translation: Chicken in gravy of golden poop) for $39.99 and go with the local greasy spoon blue-plate special for $7.99?
You betcha.
I’m a little sick and (forgive the pun) fed up with it all. More and more of this over fancified stuff creeps into our lives everyday with no end in site.
A gentrification of food, besides being profitable for those who partake in it, has spread into everything from the simple spice and cooking utensil to cat food.
Look, I’m not saying it’s wrong with wanting to eat fancy food everyday. But you know, to paraphrase Anthony Bourdain: there’s more to life than caviar and frois gras.
It’s the commercialization of it all that’s just pissing me off. Let me get to the point, when fancy stuff become the standard of which we dine on, we lose and important part of the human society.
Sometimes a burger should just be a burger, with no particularly funky twist to it. Sometimes, there’s nothing wrong with meat and potatoes.
The thing is an everyday “hole-in-the-wall joint” in an ethnically diverse part of town, from the back of a truck, or better yet, a simple street cart, more often than not, provides way more rich flavors than the aforementioned “poulet du merde” entree at your local Cordon Bleu.
As a society, let’s not forget those dishes and offerings that are culinary staples beyond classics. We can’t eat gold leafed cupcakes everyday, right?!
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Enough With The Celebrity Gourmet
You might not like what I’m about to say. You might totally disagree with me and probably want to burn my PC into a molten pile of plastic goo.
But you just know, that I don’t care.
There’s a “high” class food craze blowing into every little bit of our lives. Celebrity chefs are everywhere hawking their injection molded, made in third-world country (or worse), wares at astronomical prices. Of course, it’s always happy-happy, all accompanied with the “you too can cook like me” smiles all over the boxed answers to culinary mastery.
It’s not just on kitchen wares. You see more and more smiling “buy my sauce” faces slapped on every bottle, baggie, and powder packet, down every aisle in your local grocery store.
Sometimes it’s just plain scary. Try to look at one of those “faces”. Look long enough and you see a smug smile, almost a sneer coming back at you. The chef is saying “you can’t cook like me, you need this hydrogenated prod of mine”.
Creepy. At least with Mrs. Butterworth, Aunt Jemima, Dough-Boy and Hamburger Helper-Glove Guy look like they could give me a warm hug. Even the Green Giant is friendly enough.
To say anything against this “trend” is likened to screaming fire in the ol’ cliched crowded theater.
It’s true. Say you’re disgusted by it and people look at you like you’ve got two heads and growing a third out of your arm pit. It’s the “what’s wrong with you” look with accompanying cringed foreheads and squished eyebrows.
The classic look of sheer disdain.
Right about now, you think there’s something wrong with me. What, pass up a poulet au jus du merde d’or (translation: Chicken in gravy of golden poop) for $39.99 and go with the local greasy spoon blue-plate special for $7.99?
You betcha.
I’m a little sick and (forgive the pun) fed up with it all. More and more of this over fancified stuff creeps into our lives everyday with no end in site.
A gentrification of food, besides being profitable for those who partake in it, has spread into everything from the simple spice and cooking utensil to cat food.
Look, I’m not saying it’s wrong with wanting to eat fancy food everyday. But you know, to paraphrase Anthony Bourdain: there’s more to life than caviar and frois gras.
It’s the commercialization of it all that’s just pissing me off. Let me get to the point, when fancy stuff become the standard of which we dine on, we lose and important part of the human society.
Sometimes a burger should just be a burger, with no particularly funky twist to it. Sometimes, there’s nothing wrong with meat and potatoes.
The thing is an everyday “hole-in-the-wall joint” in an ethnically diverse part of town, from the back of a truck, or better yet, a simple street cart, more often than not, provides way more rich flavors than the aforementioned “poulet du merde” entree at your local Cordon Bleu.
As a society, let’s not forget those dishes and offerings that are culinary staples beyond classics. We can’t eat gold leafed cupcakes everyday, right?!