The two articles details Madeleine and Simon’s reviews on differing ends of dining. What are the essential elements needed to make a good dining experience?

What defines a ‘normal’ meal? For me, a normal meal with family friends was a barbeque with steak, sausages, and potato salad. For Madeline Chapman “Coming from a big family, KFC was and still is one of few affordable options for feeding all of us at short notice.”[1] Inbuilt class structures define what is normal for different sections of society. Simon Wilson’s accusation that KFC is “a celebration of crap” has a hollow ring – it’s no surprise that a man who regularly dines on quail fails to appreciate the finer points of fried chicken.

What truly defines a good dining experience is how food makes us feel and the associated memories it contains. Focussing on the nutritional quality of KFC is like critiquing your child’s drawing for not being within the lines – it entirely misses the point. Food doesn’t require perfection: it requires love and a sense of community. Rather than attacking those who eat fast food, what is required is an acknowledgement that there are cultural and familial connections that make certain foods uniquely important for different groups of people.

I’ll end with a simple thought experiment. If you had the chance to critique a top restaurant in Auckland by yourself, or share a picnic with your family at a local park, which would you choose? I’d take the latter every time – chicken and coleslaw in ciabatta rolls never tasted better.

 

References

[1] Chapman, M and Wilson, S. 2019. “The Food Critic And The Rookie Head To KFC”. The Spinoff. https://thespinoff.co.nz/auckland/11-12-2017/the-food-critic-and-the-rookie-head-to-kfc/.