An interesting article from the FT: Carrots are the new caviar, with some notable passages and a critical take at the end:
“All products have the same gastronomic value, regardless of their price.” End of the tyranny of caviar, foie gras, truffles, lobster and filet mignon? Maybe.
[An] era of faux prosperity, over the past several decades the menus of almost every expensive restaurant in the western world have become an endless parade of caviar, foie gras, truffles, lobster and filet mignon, often flown in from around the globe. These ingredients have become the Birkin bags of the culinary world, more important as cultural signifiers than as actual experiences.
And more:
Cooking matters, because the worth of an ingredient is intimately tied to our ability to turn it into food. In the US and the UK, our collective inability to do little more than open a package or throw a steak on a grill skews our perception of the worth of an ingredient – ease of preparation determines value. This limits the kinds of ingredients we grow and cook with, making our food more wasteful, more expensive and less tasty.
More interesting is Rowley Leigh’s critical take:
I am tempted to follow George Orwell and suggest that all ingredients may be equal but, even in the current frugal climate, some may be more equal than others.