A menu is both a statement and an invitation. It may appear as a mere list of a restaurant’s offerings, but after setting a mood with the decor and a welcome greeting, a menu is the first time the restaurant kitchen communicates directly with the diner. Because of the messaging opportunities, many restaurants have ditched the staid trio of appetizers, entrees, and desserts for phrasing that speaks more to the actual experience they’re creating, which is usually not so staid and traditional.
This is overall a good thing, allowing more restaurants to use vernacular specific to the cultures they represent, or just have more fun with language. But lately I’ve been noticing more restaurants embracing that fun at the expense of actually telling the diner information like how big a dish is in comparison to others. When did we become allergic to the word “appetizers”?
Something in contemporary Western diets must shift, for both moral and ecological reasons. Fortunately, there are alternatives to our current food system – ways of eating that are equally, if not more, nutritious but without the suffering and climate impacts of factory-farmed meat. Unfortunately, many people find these alternatives disgusting.
I know, because I’ve been one of those people.
Marcy Dermansky’s Hot Air had me questioning reality from the very first page. But that’s life, isn’t it? The most unrealistic anecdotes, the zaniest events, are usually the ones that actually happened.
Celebrity chefs have grown into brands far beyond the confines of their restaurants. They’re sales platforms selling television shows and cookbooks and merchandise. That’s all possible because of the cultlike following in their fan base. It’s the public’s intrigue in their personal lives that likely will entice readers to pick up Laurie Woolever’s memoir, Care And Feeding. And they will likely be delighted to find the book a deeper exploration of restaurants, marriage, parenthood, substance abuse, work, hopes, and dreams than simply the exposition of the secret lives of master chefs.