The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
The Chicago Tribune ran a piece this week about the supposed "ten worst dining trends" of the last decade. We all know top-ten lists are a great way to get people's attention, and a negative list like this really sets people off.
But are these trends really all bad? I don't think so. Let's take them one at a time.
10. Fried Onion Blossoms
This monster is from Dallas BBQ in Manhattan. Read more here » [Photograph: Erin Zimmer]
That's all you got? C'mon, a fried onion blossom is basically just a great big pile of onion rings. Granted, they usually run a little greasy. But who doesn't like onion rings? I'm not recommending you have one of these for lunch every day, but once a year that is pretty good, fun eating!
9. Molecular Gastronomy
Alinea restaurant in Chicago. [Flickr: Sektormedia]
This is the one that really set me off. First of all, it is ridiculous to lump a bunch of things together under the term "molecular gastronomy." Every way that we routinely prepare food today was once an innovation that someone pooh-poohed. Many of the techniques of this movement are routinely used in preparing relatively unassuming dishes. You may well have had a piece of meat cooked sous-vide or a sauce thickened with an engineered hydrocolloid the last time you ate out and not given it a second thought.
When people think "molecular gastronomy," they think of the fantastical dishes from chefs like Ferran Adria or Grant Achatz, sometimes barely recognizable as food, with apparently wild flavor combinations in exotic preparations. Some of it almost looks like magic. And guess what? That's why some of us like it.
As Salvador Dali famously said, "sometimes there isn't enough surrealism in the world." Nobody, not even the chefs who cook this way, want to eat it for every meal. But occasionally it is great fun if your food engages your intellect and sense of humor, as long as it continues to taste amazing.
If you want pizza for dinner, don't go to Alinea or Mini-Bar and then complain that you couldn't get a decent slice!
8. The $40 Entree
Maybe in three or four of our fancy-pants cities you can find a $40 entree at a neighborhood bistro. Mostly this is just a straw man. If a place is charging $40 for most of the entrees, by definition this isn't a neighborhood bistro, though it might project that mise en scene. That said, restaurants that seek out great, organic ingredients from local farmers often have to pay premium prices, and that gets passed on to you. Instead of complaining, either appreciate the value in what you are getting or vote with your feet.
7. The Communal Table
The Irish Heather in Vancouver. [Flickr: ecstaticist]
Most of the time I'm looking for a meal, not a meet-and-greet. But again, it is a free country, right? A communal table can be great fun if you are feeling convivial, or just want to get out of your own head for an hour. I'd choose one for sure if I was traveling alone on business.
6. Proudly Obnoxious Fast-Food Options
This is real. Read more here» [Image: burgerkingjapan.co.jp]
OK, I can't argue. A 1,500-calorie hamburger isn't doing any good except pumping up the bottom line for your local coronary surgeon. Just this week, this seven-layer Whopper was introduced at Burger Kings in Japan in conjunction the release of Windows 7.
5. Knee-Jerk Online Reviews
You get what you pay for, right? There has been a lot of pushback from professional critics about how awful the Yelper and food blogger reviews are. I personally find them very useful. I take any individual review with a grain of salt, but reading the totality of a dozen or so screeds, I think I get a pretty good sense of what is going on. (Full disclosure: I also write the occasional review myself.)
Don't worry critics, I still love you. There is a lot to be said for developing a "relationship" with a particular professional whose work you can trust. For example, I read Jonathan Kauffman in the Seattle Weekly and find that through the depth and context of his reviews, I learn about the bigger picture of whole ethnic cuisines, as well as the state of fine dining in our city.
All information has value; the trick is to interpret it intelligently.
4. Foam
Coconut foam sitting on mustard ice cream and braised pineapple from wd-50 in Manhattan.[Photograph: Robyn Lee]
Fair enough, if the base isn't flavorful enough, a foam can be an empty mouthful of air. Used properly, it can be an interesting textural component to a dish. Mainly foam gets derision as the poster child for what is supposedly wrong with #9, molecular gastronomy. Or should we ban cappuccino and beer too?
3. The Menu as Book
I'm in violent agreement here. Personally, within reason I prefer a simpler menu description. Or better yet, none at all. My favorite way to eat out at a good restaurant is to simply let the chef make me whatever they think I will love.
2. The Chef as Media Whore
Rocco DiSpirito. [Photograph: New York Daily News]
Wow, harshing on Rocco Di Spirito, that's original! Honestly, almost all of the celebrity chefs can cook their aproned buns off. If you don't believe me, go back and watch some episodes of Molto Mario. Sure, some of these guys are overexposed, and darn right they aren't in the kitchen when you go eat at their restaurants. We have nobody to blame but ourselves. The same folks who like to complain about this wouldn't dream of missing an episode of Top Chef.
1. Deconstruction
Again, another swipe at modernist food. If all you do is take the components of a traditional dish and spread them out on a plate, that isn't anything to write home about. Done intelligently, deconstruction can allow you to experience a familiar food in a completely different way, often delightful way. Will a gazpacho of freeze dried cucumbers and spherified tomato replace the classic, refreshing soup? Absolutely not. Is it a whole lot of fun to try once? Absolutely.
The Bottom Line
So that's how I see it. This list is basically just a bunch of populist rabble-rousing, bashing of supposed elites who have become too effete to enjoy the pleasure of simple, rustic food. The only problem is, these creatures barely exist. Pretty much everyone who eats $40 deconstructed foam-laden entrees at the communal table of a celebrity chef's underground restaurant also is plenty happy with good $3 food from a serious taco truck. Or a bloomin' onion.
About the author: Michael Natkin is an aspiring professional chef in Seattle. As the founder of Herbivoracious and our Seriously Meatless columnist, he's on a mission to show the world that vegetarian cuisine can be modern, satisfying, and delicious. When he's not cooking, Michael is a senior software engineer at Adobe Systems. Or getting his knickers in a twist after reading top-ten lists.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
34 Comments:
What a great response to something that's sole purpose is to provoke a bunch of people. This top ten list reads like an ED LEVINE dining on Chicago article where he is just trying to get everyone's goad. All ten of the items have their flaws but mostly a lot of value, so to me you really can't call them bad trends. Furthermore if I didn't have overexposed TV chefs I never would have been as interested in food as I am today. I don't care how that sounds, not all of us went to culinary school or read Julia child books as young boys.
Timothyrows at 12:19PM on 10/23/09
Sorry - molecular gastronomy is just ridiculous. It's also something that matters not a bit to many of us except as an oddity - even those of us who cook & eat seriously. But gotta love the onion though.
Dcarl1 at 12:23PM on 10/23/09
The way I see it, one person's "worst trends" is another person's preference. Needless to say, this article by the CT was unnecessary and, as Timothyrows states, only reason of existence is to provoke people. The great thing about these lists is that, unless blatantly misinformed, you can't really be wrong. For example, they could have just have easily flipped most of their worst trends, and they still would have made sense. Instead of being sick of molecular gastronomy (which, just like Rocco, is way too over hated), what if they said they were sick of all these "down home, simplistic" places? Sure, I can see their point - just as I can for molecular gastronomy. Regardless, a great point of view, Michael, and thank you for setting the record straight on some commonly held beliefs of molecular gastronomy, celebrity chefs, and, most of all...the fried onion blossom!
pastry262 at 12:30PM on 10/23/09
People aren't eating those blooming onions once a year.
QueenAlli at 12:32PM on 10/23/09
I'm surprised that $40+ entrees would raise an eyebrow in NYC. Travel to tourism-centric Hawaii, and you will find it commonplace in some of the better places. Absurd when the restaurant is terrible, though:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/canoes-restaurant-lahaina
salpico at 12:36PM on 10/23/09
I'm not a fan of the communal table, it makes me uncomfortable being I'm slightly anti-social. That whopper is ridiculous and I don't like a very long menu either.
Other than that, gimme the foam, deconstruction, onion blossom, and whatever else you've got, as long as it tastes good.
AyeEat at 1:00PM on 10/23/09
I really hate communal tables so I don't patronize restaurants that have communal tables.
I went to a Benihana japanese steakhouse in 1981 and that is the last time I've sat at a communal table. Around 1997, I had dinner in a place that had a communal table, though I sat at a regular table.
If there is a communal table in my field of vision it will send me into a violent rage.
redfish at 1:03PM on 10/23/09
I do agree with a few of the CT tends listed like the obnoxious fast food and the communal table, and I never have more fun eating than when there is no menu like at an omakase bar so I would also agree with teh 'menu as a book' rant. I really can't see us looking negatively on some of the others a decade from now.
Molecular Gastronomy is the one I would take the most issue with. There really are chefs who can use it to their advantage and apply skill to it to make it really interesting. The CT article quoted Tanya Steel as saying "something feels disconnected when a chef has to buy a machine costing tens of thousands of dollars to cook" I think chefs like Blumenthal, Adria, Achatz or even Dufrense all are actually cooking themselves but using molecular gastronomy as a tool to create somthing surprising and new, not having a machine cook for them. While I find simplicity to be the true mark of a skilled chef, I don't personally see anything wrong with pushing the limits as they do. Granted, as this article mentioned it's not something you would want to eat everyday, but I certainly would not call it one of the worst food trends of this decade.
Fweety at 1:19PM on 10/23/09
Oh, I don't know re: communal tables. They're not that much different from those 'banks' in restaurants in Europe. Sure, the tables were separate from that endlessly long couch, but you'd still brush your neighbor's elbow if you reached out to take a hard cut at that overcooked pepper steak you just got served.
TikiPundit at 1:24PM on 10/23/09
Yep, I gotta say... The 10 on that list are pretty sucky! Gotta agree with most of them. Don't much care for molecular gastronomy although it does have merit. Without the Grant A's of the world, how would we find the edge?
I'd also have to say that reviews and blogs are valuable no matter the source. At least the info is timely and in a lot of cases you can get feedback right from the source... unlike a magazine or so called "professional reviewer".
All the others.... I find them annoying. Hell I hate it when my table is in distance of another table, never mind communal. I do the communal thing at thanksgiving... and I don't think I'm alone in saying that once a year is plenty!
Media whore chefs... it was ok when they were actually chefs. But now there are media whore chefs that are whores, and not actually chefs... they annoy the shit outta me!
Pavlov at 1:25PM on 10/23/09
"something feels disconnected when a chef has to buy a machine costing tens of thousands of dollars to cook"
Like... a restaurant output stove? Like a walk in refrigerator?
dprice at 1:29PM on 10/23/09
Top Ten lists are for idiots, and David Letterman.
simon at 1:30PM on 10/23/09
@ simon, is there a difference?
alosha7777 at 1:41PM on 10/23/09
This quote just baffled me: "something feels disconnected when a chef has to buy a machine costing tens of thousands of dollars to cook."
Like an oven? Or a Stove? I'm not sure what piece of equipment costs outrageously more than any of the other equipment that you'll find in a professional kitchen. A thermal circulator is under $1000. An anti-griddle costs about that. I assume most kitchens already have a cryovac (if they don't they probably should). A smoking gun is like $75. This is nothing compared to the cost of other professional equipment. The only thing I can think of which someone might use for modern techniques is a combi oven, but I don't think many chefs feel they need one to do any special techniques (and they're useful for a whole range of other things).
arbeck at 1:42PM on 10/23/09
What I find intriguing (scratch that, RIDICULOUS!) about the attitude toward molecular gastronomy is that when I design a packaged food product using the same ingredients these chefs use, it triggers the rants about additives in food. Don't use them in a $2 can of soup, but as an item in a $200 + tasting menu its good eats. It makes no sense to me.
Molecular Gastronomy is Better living through chemistry, to steal an old tag line. The things you see in those restaurants used to be the parlor tricks ingredient companies used to trigger developers of Industrial food products to try their products, only with more trendy ingredients. When I went to Alinea, I could remember which company showed me similar items way back in the 70's. Don't tell me these guys are so creative, good marketers maybe, but they are standing on the shoulders of giants (Dow, Monsanto, FMC corporation etc (good thing they are international so they fit into the buy locally trend)) to succeed in their niche. Sous vide was a food industry practice before chefs made individual entrees using the technology, industrial processors made the equipment reliable and affordable for chefs to use.
Meat guy at 1:57PM on 10/23/09
Great review MichaelNatkin, I thouroughly enjoyed the bottom-line conclusion. Like: food is food. People love it. Loving food might be a trend? But it doesn't mean we still can't love it!
hungrychristel at 2:07PM on 10/23/09
I've eaten at Fat Duck (no, I wasn't paying) and some of it is brilliant and some is nonsense. The chips...I would die for those chips. Dried in a special machine to make them extra-crispy, as we all know chips should be. The turbot was amazing, packed with flavour which the sauces added to rather than masked. I didn't like all the nonsense of the various amuse-bouchee or the silly desserts. Do I want snails in my ice cream? No. No I do not. I don't want snails in my anything, to be honest.
NotAmerican at 2:08PM on 10/23/09
I will miss the blooming onion. I never opted to take my chance to have one before they were declare illegal. I snooze, I looze (yep).
beano at 2:16PM on 10/23/09
Molecular Gastronomy, Deconstruction and $40 entrees can all be great if you get them in the right place, done by the true masters of the craft.
What's dangerous is any of these things in the hands of undertrained chefs/cooks/restauranteurs looking to cash in on a trend.
Most food bloggers / writers / cooks know the difference between a place like El Bulli or Alinea and inexperienced chefs just throwing foams and dusts on every plate so they can double the prices.
Or the difference between a $50 steak thats really worth it and some mediocre hotel restaurant just turning & burning and raking in the dough.
The problem is that most people don't know the difference, and these places give a bad name to molecular gastronomy, fine dining, and professional cooking in general.
Hawk Krall at 2:21PM on 10/23/09
I'm with @meat guy on the irony of molecular gastronomy. They use a lot of stabilizers and chemicals that are used in "processed food" that people avoid... lol
And @#6, I'm getting worried about my country. maybe they are unconsciously trying to shorten life expectancy (since it's causing serious issues).
hmw0029 at 2:24PM on 10/23/09
Meat guy,
I would never complain about packaged food products using the same ingredients as MG chefs.
Transglutaminase, Sodium citrate, Calcium Chloride, Xanthan, Gelatin, Sodium alginate, and Lecithin all have their place.
And sure, the industry figured out the uses of a lot of those things (but not all) before hand. What exactly is the problem with that? Just because a technique was invented by science doesn't mean it's evil. Brining poultry and pork became popular because of the enhanced meat that the big companies were selling. Does that mean I should just buy the enhanced Butterball instead of brining my own bird? Just because xanthan is used to make a stable emulsion in that horrible bottle of Italian dressing I can't use it to make my home made dressing stable?
Sous Vide was invented for institutional cooking in France, but that doesn't mean that it can't make the tastiest steaks and duck confit I've ever had.
I'm sure cooking potatoes in a water bath to set their starch was invented by the instant mashed potato producers, but that doesn't make my potatoes inferior when I attempt it.
If we set our limits as not doing anything that any industrial producer has done before, our options are going to get pretty limited quickly.
arbeck at 2:31PM on 10/23/09
That's not an onion blossom; that's an onion loaf, and Tony Roma's Steakhouse has been doing them for over 25 years. An onion blossom is more like an onion ring, and was popularized by Outback Steakhouse's Bloomin' Onion. It looks like this:
http://luluslaundryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/bloomin-onion.jpg
DrGaellon at 2:47PM on 10/23/09
I find it ironic that the paper that (rightfully) swoons over all things Rick Bayless would complain about celebrity chefs. I love the Trib, though I admit to having worked for a number of years at the Sun Times. But I think this particular gripe is more indicative of the Second City mentality: "We hate celebrity chefs...EXCEPT FOR OUR OWN, of course."
Rhetor at 5:15PM on 10/23/09
Personally, I find the whole, "onion loaves and fried everything and ewwww, 7-layer Whoppers" to be more classist than anything else. It bugs me, and frankly makes me want to wolf down that entire 7-patty burger.
BangieB at 6:55PM on 10/23/09
In another threat I said deconstructed everything was my pet peeve.
I'm not sure if bloomin' onion is really a trend though
ag3208 at 8:02PM on 10/23/09
Foam always looks like the waitron spit on my food.
lfinman at 10:16AM on 10/24/09
Regarding community tables... they have their place. I don't want to go to a sit down restaraunt and eat at a communal table. Hell, I don't want to go to most places and sit at a communal table, and certainly not one that seats 20 people on each side. A deli is a reasonable spot for a communal table, maybe 6-8 poeple deep. Anything more is absurd.
I find molecular gastronomy to be kinda gimicky. It's good and fun here and there, but not something I'd actively pursue more than once or twice a year.
foams are just horrible. Give me a sauce over bubbles any day.
dre2112 at 2:21PM on 10/24/09
I agree on some of what you said, Michael. But, you can keep the communal table.
And, the elevation of chefs to rock stars has just given us expensive food cooked by someone who isn't the celebrated chef, since he or she is out on a book tour.
chanterelle at 9:24PM on 10/28/09
BangieB, you're totally right about that. Isn't it sad that the poorer, working classes of our country are forced to subsist on such unhealthy food because of cost. Fresh, whole food should be available to everyone at a price which makes it reasonable. But that whopper is still disgusting.
cookingbooks at 9:17AM on 11/02/09
I completely agree with number 9 and 4 - Molecular Gastronomy and Foam! I went to wd-50 for a friend's birthday celebration about a year ago and it was a truly horrifying experience. I ordered the foie gras "gravel" (essentially foie gras that was freeze dried and then shattered with a hammer) and a fish dish and shared a dessert with the table. All of the dishes were too tiny for a proper meal and all covered in or accompanied with foam, I went home with a horrible stomach ache. My boyfriend and I both rolled on the bed feeling the pain of eating dishes of science experiments. I wanted to like wd-50 but I am sorry to say I can't and I won't.
PrimaDivina at 10:17AM on 11/02/09
I agree wholeheartedly with the critique of "foam." WTF???? I ordered only one dish in my life that had "foam" on it, and it looked like the chef (or maybe the waitperson) spat on my dish. It was hideous. I hope this trend dies as quickly as "vanilla lobster."
Chef as Media Whore - and who did they throw up as the photo? Rocco DiSpirito. This dude was a great cook and that ONE BLUNDER he committed called "The Restaurant" cost him about 5 years of productivity. After The Restaurant, I wouldn't pay to watch DiSpirito boil an egg. I'm sorry to say restaurant "reality" shows have not improved much. It's still drama, insults, distractions - with little attention to what the contestant is actually cooking.
Communal tables don't bother me - try getting into Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown at high lunch hour and see if you don't relent and sit at a communal table.
I think "knee-jerk" reviews are only a small problem, compared to a) inflatedly positive reviews written by the restaurant owner's brother-in-law and b) exaggeratedly horrible reviews written by someone who couldn't get a timely reservation - or worse - someone who has NEVER dined at the establishment whose food he or she is reviewing.
LBNL, the first category "onion blossoms," and the "proudly obnoxious" categories could be combined. It's all about vulgar amounts of fat and calories - and pokes fun at gluttons who go in for this sort of thing.
therealchiffonade at 2:21PM on 11/02/09
candidly, i quite agree with most of the list. i appreciate the "response" you offer here (but generally don't agree with you). many foodies i know have been grumbling about the "trends" identified in the Chicago Tribune piece for some time.... there is a lot of pretension and indulgence in the food world and i think it is a good thing for a provocative commentator to offer a "reality check" from time to time....
and you reference the Tribune piece as the "bashing of supposed elites"... "supposed"???? excuse me? who else but "elites" can afford $40 "bistro" entrees and most of the restaurants that feature "foam" and "molecular gastronomy"?
HerbyN at 3:06PM on 11/02/09
So can someone do a list of the 10 worst catering trends? #1 Everything as a lolly pop. I believe David Burke started this with his cheese cake lollly pops.
When are we going to find a replacement for soup sips?
Annette Aaron Eventfiulls at 10:37AM on 11/04/09
Funny, I make cheesecake pops when I have a chunk of cheesecake that's too big to toss but too small to serve on its own. First I shove a plastic spoon into a big chunk of cheesecake, then dunk it in melted chocolate, then put it in the freezer. I served a tray of these things and all I heard were moans of pleasure. (My cheesecake is made from scratch. I've seen Shamdra Lee do this where she murders a frozen cheesecake with a scoop, winding up with a cheesecake carcass.)
Re: Soup Sips - do you mean in small cups? That does seem rather silly. I like to serve "dessert bites" on Chinese porcelain spoons. Even if you have 2 it's not like wolfing down an entire dessert - but you get to have a tasty sweet in small measure.
therealchiffonade at 10:46AM on 11/04/09