A quote
"the desire to be interesting is possibly the most damaging impulse in cooking." Nigella Lawson
And probably everything else as well. But let's stick to cooking.
Above is an example. Believe it or not it's an avocado bun and it featured in an article in Care 2 about the seven most interesting food trends of 2018. Even the author said:
"Yes, these bright, vibrant buns are beautiful to look at, but have you actually tried to eat a sandwich or a burger made with an avocado bun? The structural integrity is just not there. Here’s hoping that in 2019, avocados remain encased inside of sandwiches—or smashed on top of toast, if you must."
This was an American article of course, so the trends mentioned there might not exist here. But in the cause of inclusivity the other six trends were: aperol, mushroom coffee, plant proteins, oat milk, activated charcoal and cricket powder. All of which, to my mind, sound weird rather than interesting and not particularly tempting.
The most interesting thing to me about those particular food trends is that they are all supposedly health foods. Well maybe not the aperol, which is just an Italian aperitif having its day in the sun. The others though are very millennial, very urban hipster, and supposedly very natural. That's the big thing these days it seems to me. Which can't be bad really. I mean of course we want to eat more healthily. And maybe anything that gets people eating the right things is a good idea. Like getting kids to eat stuff by making it look interesting:
Though, honestly, does it work, and anyway does a busy, not particularly creative mum have time to do things like this? I doubt it works with kids, and I doubt it works with the common man/woman either.
In 'normal' life these are the kind of 'interesting' foods that we are encouraged to try by the foodie magazines and the food manufacturers. That and the food of cultures we may be unfamiliar with, and these are all good things. But then there are the 'artists' the haute cuisine chefs like the people at Attica, Noma and the like who are constantly devising new and interestingly extreme ways to prepare and present food.
But ordinary mortals like me? The quote comes from Nigella Lawson's first book - How to Eat - from the section in which she is talking about dinner parties, and how trying to be interesting is stressful and unproductive. For example she says, one interesting 'new' cheese might be interesting but not three. I guess I am a bit guilty of trying to be interesting, but alas not just for dinner parties - a rare event these days, but also for my husband who is actually not really into 'interesting' food and - even worse - for myself. The cooks I like do interesting little things that make a dish different and I do love to experiment a bit with the contents of my fridge. But I do have a tendency to add too many different things in that drive to be interesting. So it just ends up a mess.
Last night, in contrast, I had a yen for a plain and simple lamb roast. Well that's how it started, but I couldn't resist - I slathered a herby, garlicky paste over the meat itself - which was good, but I also couldn't resist mucking around with the accompanying vegetables - cauliflower, beans and brussels sprouts by tossing them in some oil, garlic and lemon after cooking. It should have been good, but somehow it wasn't. I should have stuck to plain old boiled veggies - I was in the mood for comfort food after all, and the delicious gravy from the scrapings in the roasting tin would have flavoured them more than adequately.
I guess you just have to be talented to make interesting really interesting. The rest of us should just keep it simple. As should those people who mess around with avocados and make them into buns!
