a good rant.
Picture the perfect croissant. Is it (A) golden, flaky and buttery? Or (B) average tasting but rainbow coloured? I’d hope you’d say it’s A. But for an increasing number of social media influencers, it’s B. The novelty foods trend is growing fast. If you use Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest, you’ve probably seen these Emperor’s New Foods (ENFs) – think rainbow croissants, unicorn iced coffees and monstrous freakshakes.
What do they have in common? They’re all style-over-substance fads and they bug the hell out of me. Remember when coffee was brown? Now lattes are made from charcoal, dragon fruit and matcha – in attention-grabbing shades of black, pink and green. Mashed avocado on toast, so recently the darling of social media, no longer cuts the mustard. Now you have to craft an avocado rose. This isn’t a trend for anyone with a life: try telling your boss you’re late for work because you were whittling your breakfast.
On the surface, ENFs are harmless fun. When the news seems unremittingly bleak, who can blame grown adults for queuing up for a unicorn frappuccino? If arranging granola in ruler-straight lines on a smoothie bowl makes people happy, perhaps we should leave them to it. And yet… there’s something soulless about these trends. What happens to our food culture when we value style over subtance?