Pretty Human: Good Looks and Taste

There is no more profoundly human ritual than sitting down and sharing food with others. Because we do it every day, several times a day, it's easy to lose sight of what a powerful and rich experience it is. There's no physical reason to share food; we do it because we're social animals who long for the company of others, and offering others our food -- the very fabric of life -- shows respect and trust.

Over time, this process of sharing food has become more refined and has turned into an art. A good chef is the most amazing artist, exciting all of your senses at once: the sound of the cooking, the sight of the plate, the aroma and taste of the food, and the texture of the food in your mouth and on your hands. We should all aspire to bring such joy into the world.

Unfortunately, learning to become a chef is hard work, and good cooking takes precious time that we often just don't have. However, there is one easy thing you can do to make your cooking taste twice as good in just thirty seconds: give it a proper presentation.

The vast majority of our communication is visual, and this extends to eating, too. We gather so much information about the food we eat by sight that some restaurants are experimenting with ways to prevent vision from overwhelming the experience. But when you put your dinner together last night, did you consider the way it looked on the plate?

By taking just a few extra seconds to consider the placements of the different foods on the plate, you'll be giving your "diners" a wonderful gift. There's no particularly right way to do it; just look for ways to make the food more appealing. For example, if you're serving steak and mashed potatoes, try putting the potatoes in a clean circle, and lift one edge of the steak onto them, to make it look lighter and more three dimensional. If you're serving green beans, try making them into a cross-hatch pattern. Go for symmetry, go for dimensions -- experiment and find your own expression.

The amazing thing is, by putting this extra moment of care into the food, you'll feel better about the food you serving, your diners will appreciate it more, and the food will taste better. Everyone wins. And it's true even if you're just microwaving a frozen burrito for yourself. Give it a few seconds of presentation attention, put it on a nice plate, and it will simply taste better. Making life taste better -- that's what it's all about.

Pretty Human

Ideas, activities, and objects that reinforce our humanity

Good Looks and Taste

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