Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/724773
DELICATE STACKS OF PERFECTLY SIZED and pastel-colored macarons. Vibrant heir- loom tomatoes sliced in even thickness, piled high with artfully oozing burrata. Photo after photo on Instagram pages, and on endless Pinterest-perfect recipes, often tagged #foodporn or #foodiegram, have given rise to a whole new kind of FOMO —that's Fear of Missing Out, to you non-Millennials. In the real world, we look at our imperfect dinners, our cracked macarons we spent four hours working on—something that's never happened to me, I swear!—and we feel frustration and envy that our food doesn't look like that. Our fresh garden pasta just doesn't look the same when it's not professionally shot in a sunny, immaculate West Elm kitchen while a cherubic two- year-old wields a spoon over it (hashtag blessed). We're just not that perfect; and to be honest, no one is all of the time, no matter how many likes and followers they have! So I say, it's time to embrace imperfection! Find beauty in things that taste delicious but aren't necessarily photo- worthy. Whether it's Matsutake mushrooms, which are tra- ditionally presented still covered in dirt to symbolize their freshness (see Dig This, page 3) or Jordan Figueiredo's Ugly Fruits and Vegetables campaign on Instagram to end food waste (visit www.TheCleverRoot.com for the full story), we should look past appearances and realize that nature— food and farm included—isn't flawless. According to Figueiredo, 40% of food grown doesn't make it to the supermarket based purely on appearance alone. The traditional Cantonese food my mother made me growing up often looks like unappealing brown stews over rice, but one bite reveals the plethora of flavors and textures in each dish, like fermented dried black beans with succulent beef ribs, or tender pork shoulder with preserved mustard root. Some things are meant to be messy, and as a semi-professional chef/food-obsessed editor, it's taken me a long time to face the fact that my food might taste good, but it won't always be beautiful. That doesn't mean I'll stop making batch after batch of macarons to get cookies with the same size and texture, or that I won't temper chocolate over and over again until I get that perfect sheen. And that might mean I'll even Instagram my imperfect dishes (BTW—are you following @TheCleverRoot?); after all, I'm not a chef at a four star restaurant or a baker at a fancy French boulangerie. And even if I were? No one's perfect all the time! So eat that bruised peach or odd-looking carrot. Show off your lopsided cake. Remember, it's all #natural. Dig In! Jesse Hom-Dawson, Food and Farming Editor Jesse@TheCleverRoot.com 1 0 | t h e c l e v e r r o o t IMPERFECTION LETTER FROM THE FOOD AND FARMING EDITOR U In Pursuit of By Jesse Hom-Dawson PHOTO: DUSTIN DOWNING ■cr "It's so beauti- fully arranged on the plate, you know someone's fingers have been all over it." – Julia Child