Deconstructed food; simple, complex or both?
This question was asked on English Language & Usage and deconstructed food is a term I'd never heard before.
One answer is that it is simply the constituent parts of a dish laid out separately on a plate allowing the consumer to reconstruct the dish manually as they eat it.
A second answer was put forward suggesting that deconstruction is taking an existing dish (or sauce), examining it's constituent parts and recombining them (or some of them) in a different way to get a similar (or better) complete dish.
Searching on the internet shows a lot of the former (simple deconstruct), even for complex dishes that are normally prepared as a unit, like beef Wellington and lasagne.
It's harder to find references for the latter (deconstruct, examine, improve, reconstruct) but this is one for deconstructed onion soup, which is most definitely a single bowl of soup.
Edit : After reading TFDs comment I think I might have misunderstood the 'deconstruction' of the onion soup above, I think it means step-by-step instructions rather than deconstructed soup so after another search I did find this wonton soup that uses the term deconstructed in the sense I meant.
So my question is...
Does the term deconstructed food really mean separated constituents or does it mean improved or simplified by inspecting the constituents and recombining them differently?
...or does it mean both ?
Best Answer
Does the term deconstructed food really mean separated constituents or does it mean improved or simplified by inspecting the constituents and recombining them differently?
Yes. (As in either can be correct)
It's about taking the various components of a dish and perhaps just separating them, or it may mean putting them back together in an unusual or novel way.
More than anything, "deconstructed" is a current, hip and trendy buzzword.
Pictures about "Deconstructed food; simple, complex or both?"
What is deconstructed in food?
When it comes to food, "deconstruction" \u2014 a riff on the term coined by French philosopher Jacques Derrida \u2014 refers to the idea of breaking apart elements traditionally combined together to make a dish, and serving the items separately in a unique way.What is a deconstructed dinner?
Deconstructed dinners take multicomponent recipes like tacos, casseroles, and salads and serve their ingredients individually, allowing each person to build their own signature creation. Breaking a meal down into its separate parts has some surprising benefits.What is deconstructive cuisine?
Deconstructed food is a culinary trend. It consists of dishes in which ingredients that are normally combined together are presented separately. Consumers are invited to re-assemble them in order to recreate the dish in they very own way.What does reconstructed mean in cooking?
The process of rehydrating dried foods by placing the food in water or some other liquid, in order to bring them back to a resemblance of their original size, shape and texture. Foods are dried in order to preserve them for longer periods of time.Simple, Compound, Complex Sentences | Learning English
More answers regarding deconstructed food; simple, complex or both?
Answer 2
Deconstruction is often seen being done by chefs, where lavish attention has been paid on each element, so when deconstructed food is seen it is often "improved" as you say. That doesn't mean it has to be though, deconstructed simply means that ingredients are cooked separately and then assembled when they would usually be cooked as a whole.
You could make a deconstructed dish with cheap ingredients and poor technique and have it come out just as awful as if you made it all together, deconstruction does not imply quality.
Answer 3
In literature, "deconstruction" can mean "taking apart the pieces of a story and examining them in detail", or it can mean something more like "taking the usual building blocks of a story and twisting them in some way to draw attention to the assumptions we normally bring to a story". By analogy, deconstructing food can mean serving the pieces separately so you can savor the flavors independently or mixed to your pleasure, or it can mean taking the usual classic recipe and altering it to bring attention to some minor flavor note or make us re-examine how we view the dish.
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