I first became fascinated by the shape of food when I was a very young Snak. Me and three of my cousins stayed with our grandmother two or three days a week when our parents were working and to stop us fighting for at least a few minutes at a time, spent most of her time in the kitchen preparing – well, mostly snacks.
In a short period of time, however, the old trad fare just didn’t cut it and the rabble roused louder than ever … until Gran got creative.
Suddenly, we were presented with strawberry roses, orange hearts, hungry caterpillars, watermelon ladybirds, bear pizzas and owl toast to remember just a few. Super clever, super appealing shapes for us and super easy (in most cases) for her. The real benefit of course, was keeping us from physically and possibly mentally damaging each other for another moment.
In a short period of time, however, the old trad fare just didn’t cut it and the rabble roused louder than ever … until Gran got creative.
Suddenly, we were presented with strawberry roses, orange hearts, hungry caterpillars, watermelon ladybirds, bear pizzas and owl toast to remember just a few. Super clever, super appealing shapes for us and super easy (in most cases) for her. The real benefit of course, was keeping us from physically and possibly mentally damaging each other for another moment.
From that time on, my fascination with all the shapes and styles of food and how its influenced by a variety of factors, including the purpose of the food, the method of preparation, and cultural or traditional practices.
Foods may be shaped into specific forms for aesthetic reasons, such as the decorative shapes of pastries or the symmetrical appearance of fruit and vegetable arrangements. Other foods may be shaped to improve their functionality or to enhance their flavour or texture.
The shape of food can impact its shelf life and storage capabilities. There is enormous diversity in the shape of different crops, be it a fruit such as tomato or a vegetable such as carrot. Ultimately, the appearance of a plant organ is determined by different cellular control mechanisms.
If you look at different types of tomatoes, for example, there can be a broad variety of sizes and well as shapes. The mind immediately pictures a round shape, but they can be oblate, pear-shaped, obovoid, torpedo or bell-pepper shaped. Why don’t all vegetable crops share the same shapes?
Foods may be shaped into specific forms for aesthetic reasons, such as the decorative shapes of pastries or the symmetrical appearance of fruit and vegetable arrangements. Other foods may be shaped to improve their functionality or to enhance their flavour or texture.
The shape of food can impact its shelf life and storage capabilities. There is enormous diversity in the shape of different crops, be it a fruit such as tomato or a vegetable such as carrot. Ultimately, the appearance of a plant organ is determined by different cellular control mechanisms.
If you look at different types of tomatoes, for example, there can be a broad variety of sizes and well as shapes. The mind immediately pictures a round shape, but they can be oblate, pear-shaped, obovoid, torpedo or bell-pepper shaped. Why don’t all vegetable crops share the same shapes?
Most fruits are spherical in shape because of the shape of plant cells, the plasmodesmata between the cells cannot connect easily if the cells would not allow a curve across the boundary. That curve is assisted by a somewhat spherical shape of the boundary of the cell wall edge. Once the cells adjoin and collaborate to create a larger cell called a germinating bud, then the shape still must be a sphere.
When the bud goes through cell division it also goes through the same process of distribution across the diagonal axis of the gravity acting on the peripheral gradient of the height of the tree, this is why taller trees are more prone to have a spherical fruit - quite exceptional among tropical fruits.
Bananas contain a chemical called Auxin that makes them grow towards the sun. Auxin is a plant hormone, and affects how the plant responds to sunlight, with respect to growth and shaping. Over the past 100 or so years, as banana plantations have become increasingly commercialized on a large scale, the corporate owners have enhanced the curving and yellowing of bananas, using Auxin herbicides, in order to make bananas look more like consumers expect them to look.
If you can find some of the very few remaining private plantations, growing truly organic bananas (where the parent trees for several generations were also organic), you'll note that bananas tend to be greener, browner, straighter, chunkier, and all around less aesthetically pleasing than the chemically and genetically "evolved" varieties demanded by the marketplace.
When the bud goes through cell division it also goes through the same process of distribution across the diagonal axis of the gravity acting on the peripheral gradient of the height of the tree, this is why taller trees are more prone to have a spherical fruit - quite exceptional among tropical fruits.
Bananas contain a chemical called Auxin that makes them grow towards the sun. Auxin is a plant hormone, and affects how the plant responds to sunlight, with respect to growth and shaping. Over the past 100 or so years, as banana plantations have become increasingly commercialized on a large scale, the corporate owners have enhanced the curving and yellowing of bananas, using Auxin herbicides, in order to make bananas look more like consumers expect them to look.
If you can find some of the very few remaining private plantations, growing truly organic bananas (where the parent trees for several generations were also organic), you'll note that bananas tend to be greener, browner, straighter, chunkier, and all around less aesthetically pleasing than the chemically and genetically "evolved" varieties demanded by the marketplace.
Anyone who has read my columns before will know that I’m a pasta masta. I love it in all its shapes and forms and the reason there are so many is fascinating. Pasta wasn’t cut into random dimensions simply by accident – each pasta style is shaped with purpose. Some are designed for soups, others for meat sauces and others engineered to suit all manner of combinations. There are literally hundreds of shapes and sizes – over 350 (although I have read there’s over 600!),all with varying origin stories.
The first pasta shape is arguable. Some say the earliest mentions are the best-known pastas – macaroni, ravioli, gnocchi, vermicelli – appearing across the Italian peninsula in the 13th century. How they got there is the subject of endless debate, with most referring to the school lesson citing Marco Polo and his travels to the Far East. Other theories say pasta had been in and around the country long before Polo’s epic voyage. Apparently, noodles were unearthed during an archaeological exploration in China and were thought to be more than 7,000 years old.
What is true is that most pasta shapes have been around for many generations and new designs are still being cut and stretched by chefs around the world.
The first pasta shape is arguable. Some say the earliest mentions are the best-known pastas – macaroni, ravioli, gnocchi, vermicelli – appearing across the Italian peninsula in the 13th century. How they got there is the subject of endless debate, with most referring to the school lesson citing Marco Polo and his travels to the Far East. Other theories say pasta had been in and around the country long before Polo’s epic voyage. Apparently, noodles were unearthed during an archaeological exploration in China and were thought to be more than 7,000 years old.
What is true is that most pasta shapes have been around for many generations and new designs are still being cut and stretched by chefs around the world.
There are many foods that come in unusual shapes and sizes. Starfruit is shaped like a star when sliced and dragon fruit has a unique skin with scales.
Salmon steaks are horseshoe shaped. Sea urchins are tentacle-like masses and squid are cone- shaped.
Foods that are square, diamond cut, perfect triangles or rectangles ring processed- food bells. Even the shape of the packaging can impact on a consumer’s sensory-discriminative responses to food. Cutting food into different shapes can affect the way it tastes – all guided by surface area and texture. Many say that lettuce tastes different when it’s torn rather that cut.
So, from the days of ‘Hey… you… phoria…’ being screamed by my cousins to these heady days of sharing my take on the Shape of Food with the wonderful GDM family, I leave you with this thought – if all foods were square, is it possible that the taste and texture would be different than if they were in their traditional shape.
Salmon steaks are horseshoe shaped. Sea urchins are tentacle-like masses and squid are cone- shaped.
Foods that are square, diamond cut, perfect triangles or rectangles ring processed- food bells. Even the shape of the packaging can impact on a consumer’s sensory-discriminative responses to food. Cutting food into different shapes can affect the way it tastes – all guided by surface area and texture. Many say that lettuce tastes different when it’s torn rather that cut.
So, from the days of ‘Hey… you… phoria…’ being screamed by my cousins to these heady days of sharing my take on the Shape of Food with the wonderful GDM family, I leave you with this thought – if all foods were square, is it possible that the taste and texture would be different than if they were in their traditional shape.