The Beauty and the Beast

Not very beautiful but delicious foods

Tastes differ. It is a fact and it is no problem. This is how different brands can survive. It gives us the opportunity to choose each day what we like. But sometimes choices are made for us.

Time, age and context all influence what we like or what we do not like. When we are young we might not like foods which we start to love as soon as we get older. The same goes for clothes. If one sees pictures of himself from ten years ago he will feel ashamed about the way he dressed at that time. Actually these differences make life so interesting. It makes us curious to other cultures, it makes us interested in history, it makes us learn new things each week.

When you go around a city you will find a diversity of building styles. Each area has its own and even within those styles one can find different typologies. People appreciate them differently. Some like the ornamental architecture of the 19^th century while others prefer the sober buildings of the modernists. Although we do not agree on what we call beautiful, we accept there are different opinions between different people. And these differences make a city so interesting. Wouldn’t it be boring to finds just one style applied to all the buildings in a city?  

Sometimes there is a common agreement on the beauty or ugliness of a building. In case the building is found ugly by many the owner could decide to come into action. When it is not possible to fix the ‘mistake’ the building could be demolished and replaced. But in many cases the ugliness is only found on the façade while the internal structure functions well. A simple makeover of the façade and the interior ensures the continuation of the buildings’ life for many more years after that.

People are also working on their appearance constantly. After one has wakened up he decides what to wear, how to dress ones hair, what make-up to wear and so on. To make sure one’s body stays in shape he visits the sports school every now and then. When one gets older and finds himself full of wrinkles he visits a plastic surgery or just accepts it because being less perfect from the outside doesn’t mean one is less beautiful on the inside.

It is never possibly to fully agree on what is beautiful and what is not. And even if something doesn’t look beautiful it doesn’t mean it is ugly. Then why are people at different moments in the production process of food deciding for us what we like and what not? Why do they decide that some bananas are to straight and thus ugly? Why can we not find hooked eggplants in the supermarket? Because those people decided we find them ugly and thus do not want to eat them. Isn’t it strange that we can make so many decisions each day about what we find beautiful and what not but that we cannot decide this for the food we buy?

Next time you will buy your fruit and veggies choose those which are not looking very attractive. I bet they taste perfect!

Studio Baan has started the campaign ‘Ugly food, (tr)eat it with respect to encourage people to avoid that foods which look different than consumers are used to are being thrown away.