Home-grown food, or frozen, reconstituted dinners?
Hugo Arnold
on our two-tier food nation.
I have seen the future and it comes via a screen; hand-held, as a section on my laptop or integrated into my fridge. Likely as not, I'll have all three. I will never run out of anything and cooking will have become a thing of the past. Welcome (if you see it that way) to the world of Smart Home (Siemens) or Miele at Home (Miele). Under this new regime, your appliances will tell you when things are running out, and will re-order them for you.
The worrying aspect of all of this is how much more we are going to be separated from the source of what we eat. Some of us will no longer select, shop for or season what we eat. But for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The rest of us will be shopping daily, watching our food grow, via CCTV, and cooking every night. In other words, we are becoming a two-tier nation and what we eat in the future will be determined by which tier we exist on.
Food is becoming a divisive issue. We consume more and more processed food and seem willing to sever the link between what appears on our plate and where it comes from. Not only that, we have become interested only in the best bits. Butchers no longer butcher whole carcases because all we want is the fillet steak and roasting joints. Liver, kidneys and flank are no longer considered, although many of these cuts end up in sausages and pies.
Science is playing an increasing role in the food we eat, and to a large extent this is a good thing. If we are to feed the world we need that knowledge. But the down side is the degree to which this knowledge is being used to manipulate what we eat without us knowing or understanding.
Sliced bread, for example, typically contains 45 per cent water, whereas the average at the end of the 1970s was 36 to 40 per cent. This increase has been a direct result of the introduction of enzymes produced by microorganisms which have been genetically modified. Bread for me is flour, yeast and water, and some time spent kneading and caring for it prior to baking. What you buy is a far cry from this, many would say it is a cocktail of chemicals and manipulation. Food, for me, is central to my way of life. A loaf of bread in the oven is as basic and good as it gets. And the washing-up? It's all part of the fun and a way of life I am not prepared to give up, ever.
FUTURE FOOD
Soul Goujons
So-called, as there is no sole in them, just soya flavoured to taste like this noble fish. There is an accompanying dipping sauce full of emulsifiers
Daube of Beef with Rosemary Roast Potatoes and Buttered Carrots
This has been microwaved on individual trays from which you eat (they feel and look like real plates, but are plastic). Cooked from frozen, they are plucked from the freezer as you come in the door. The beef is from South America and has been reconstituted and "stuck" together to look like whole pieces. Because it doesn't taste of anything, the list of ingredients is littered with flavour additives. The same goes for the potatoes, which are reconstituted from powder, shaped, combined with rosemary flavouring and blast chilled. The carrots are real, but were hydroponically grown and taste of little, so the "not butter, but looks like butter" has been "beefed" up to compensate
Ice-Cream and Chocolate Sauce
It contains no cream or chocolate, but is flavoured and manipulated to look like choc-ices. I spotted this in a supermarket the other day, as part of the value line. Frighteningly, it tasted pretty good.
REAL FOOD
Salad of Mrs McNally's Siberian Goats' Cheese
This has involved visiting a number of different suppliers, but all deliver. It is served with home-grown leaves, single estate olive oil and hand-harvested organic lemons
Roast Kilkenny Chicken, Organic Lentils, Braised Fennel and Riesling
The chicken has been sourced from a "closed" farm in Kilkenny where they breed and grow the feed for the chickens. The lentils have been imported from Italy, the fennel is home-grown
Spiced Apple Crumble
Made from Cox's apples and a topping made from unrefined sugar and organic flour. The cream comes from Jersey cows that munch on the Beara Peninsula, one of Europe's last great wildernesses.