“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”-Aristotle
Deconstructionist chefs and molecular gastronomist need to put down McGee and pick-up Aristotle. Seriously, I’m tired of it. It’s a fad, it’s trendy, and as usual people are overpaying for it. Take something that works, strip it down to basic parts, re-plate parts on something other than a plate, and tell me that I should appreciate it, perhaps more than the original dish (why else would you charge me twice as much?). Sorry, I’m not buying and I don’t understand why others do.
Deconstructed white wine (yep, that’s a picture of it right above). Deconstructed lasagna? Yep, Rachel Ray has a recipe for it. Odd, I thought lasagna only really worked when all the cheese, sauce, pasta, etc. had time to cook and commune together. Blow cream cheese through a whippet canister and plate it next to a sugar cube? There’s your dessert to go with your de-con lasagna. Ooooh, so rich and decadent. I’m all for chefs being creative and having fun in the kitchen-it makes for better cuisine and a better dining experience. But stop taking yourself so seriously and for crying out loud, stop asking me to pay double for less work on your end. I don’t care if you are serving your “creation” on a hand-stitched organic cotton loin cloth.
So I figure it’s just a matter of time before some sommelier and head chef form a brain trust and start offering deconstructed merlot. They’ll give you a few glasses lined up in the sommelier’s preferred order. The preferred order no doubt based on the sommelier’s favorite day of the week. Here’s your glass of malic acid, here’s your glass of dehydrated blackberries, crushed black pepper, and vanilla extract, here’s a soupcon of French oak oil, and finally a pinch of tannin and a tablespoon of neutral spirit. Voila’! Can’t you just taste it? Oh the memories. Who needs to wait around for silly ol’ fermentation and bottle aging to let the parts become one.
Some things are better left undone.
