SFist: SFist Watches: Your Locals On Reality TV

Akit

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:57:13 -0800

Shouldn't the bachelor and the future ex-girlfriend (It happens nearly 9 times out of 10 if the gal was the final rose chosen) be wearing a hat while grabbing ice cream? Just what we need, hair in our ice cream the next day when it is opened-up for regular service. Did you wash your hands too? Ooops, lost a fingernail.

aleph1

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:50:40 -0800

You are correct, and you make my point. Most people's reaction would be wrong and uninformed. We live in a society that is heavily dependent on science and technology, yet most people become scared the second they hear some scientific sounding term, even if it just describing a rather mundane item in more specific terms. Certainly some additives are bad and most can be used to make food worse rather than better. My own hypothesis is that additives have been given a bad name as a result of being used to extend the shelf life of mass produced products or to mask their deficiencies. I posit that people do not mind additives or techniques if their use results in a product that is obviously different from initial product. Therefore, most people don't mind, and in fact enjoy, jamon serrano (cured ham), salted dry cod, jams and jellies, pickled items, canned food, etc. But that same people start associating bad taste and unhealthiness with additives when they are used to make that mass produced cupcake be able to sit on the shelf for a month and still be somewhat moist and flavorful, because they can compare it to the taste of a freshly baked one, and tell the later is much better.

Rain

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:22:05 -0800

Well, misinformed or not, I think a lot of people would have a different gut reaction to hearing that "lecithin" was used to thicken a sauce in their dish than they would hearing eggs yolks were in it. And even most of the chefs on the show felt quite uncomfortable utilizing those things in their cooking.

aleph1

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:10:32 -0800

That is some rather uninformed commentary about the Next Iron Chef. There is nothing "weird" about those chemicals. Most of them are just polysacharides, similar the to the pectin you find in jelly, and act a gums. In fact, I found it rather funny that one of the ingredients they asked them to use was lecithin, an emulsifier, as if it was some sort of new science fiction item, given that lecithin is found in egg yolks, which are routinely used in the kitchen as emulsifiers (think mayonnaise). It really annoys me when people start complaining about additives as if they are something new or all bad. Hello? Nitrates? What do you think is used to make jamon serrano and prosciutto? Pectin for jellies? Gelatin? The same people that bitch about MSG in Chinese food would mortgage their children to each truffles, which are full of them, and don't realize that mushrooms, tomatoes, seaweed, soy and many other foods have plenty of glutamic acid.