Why we should love our "Ugly Duckling" food.

There is an dangerous obsession among food consumers in the UK: Conformity.
As a nation we have a view of how a certain ingredient should look and, backed up by the supermarkets, we stick to it. A carrot should be a specific length, specific girth and a very particular hue of orange. An apple should be the "perfect" shape and exactly the right mix of green and rosy red. All loaves of bread should look the same.
This is, of course a complete nonsense, however this myth of food perfection and adhering to very specific norms pervades our supply chains and hence, our cooking. This is not helped by the fact that we have hundreds of highly skilled chefs in the UK who produce dishes which seem awesome in their levels of accuracy and conformity.

Ugly bagels just before the oven

Not quite swans but quite delicious

I have absolutely no problem with great chefs doing this but we are foolish, as home cooks, if we follow the same slavish adherence to "the perfect". When we are feeding those we love, it really is all about the imperfections, much like falling in love itself. The fact that food has, on it, marks made by the hand of the cook is a thing to be celebrated in our homes. The only thing worse than this "perfect" food in our home kitchens is food which has been made to look "rustic" or "paysan". We really are just making something for supper, stop trying so hard!