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Performative Food

The idea that food needs to be performative to be deemed good would sound like a novel concept of the TikTok age but it probably is not. 

..The food can’t just sit there. It must be as performative as the staff, if not more so. Nothing hooks a viewer more than items that melt and drip and stretch. “Anything cheesy is always good, because there’s some kind of action item,” says Raum. It could be syrup ladled over a dessert, rare steaks dribbling blood and hemoglobin, or strands of melted mozzarella distended between halves of a saucy meatball sub.

The first image that crossed my mind reading this was that of a street-side chai-wallah in India pouring chai and the sense of anticipation is creates in the mind of the customer waiting for the finished product. Watching the action is a very big part of the process. It would not be nearly as interesting if that chai was served at once without the pouring dance. 

A lot of street food around the world combines similar elements of performance into preparation and service. Successful vendors are able to draw the customer into the act of getting their food ready, work up the appetite and build readiness to love what ends up on their plate. Social media might have enabled the concentration of this energy but the idea is far from new.

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