I have been observing an accelerating trend in the food marketing and culinary service industry. The trend I am talking about is the alienation of humans from involvement in preparing their meals…… and presenting it as a good thing that makes you save time and eat well!
Some time ago, I saw a billboard at a bus stop in Paris which compared the choices of a young active professional for his dinner: Either spend a whole hour cooking and preparing his meal, or ordering the UberEats delivery meals that will allow him to use the saved time to do exercise and other pleasant activities. Also displaying that such a meal will be healthy and nutritious.
I had a flashback to this experience the other day when I saw a tv commercial. It was from a company that announced it does the shopping, the ingredient selection, and the recipe development for you and all you have to do is to follow instructions and do the cooking.
So the TV ad showed a happy famly was sitting around in the kitchen, pulling out the ‘quality’ ingredients that have been personally selected and packed for them, and then preparing one of the recipes that has been picked. During this period there is a joy and togetherness of the whole family, all thanks to the fact that a young ‘innovative’ company has figured out how to pick and pack the right quality ingredients for you and how to make efficient recipes!
Now, I understand that these trends are inevitable and in fact this particular system of packing ingredients and recipes has been around for a while, especially for the elderly, but going as far as removing all efforts in making your meal on a regular basis is taking away one of the most intimate acts of humans over the tens of thousands of years we have been on Earth.
So one delivery organization tells us that we can use our cooking and shopping time better by ordering our regular meal, every day. Another organization tells us they can pick and pack great quality ingredients so that we don’t have to do the effort of shopping and selection. I guess what we are missing is a company that will find a system to swallow the meal for us and transfer the nutrients to our organs and metabolism. Or even better yet, a company that will put all the necessary nutrients for a balanced meal in a pill and we can just pop up one of those and continue working. No need to waste time for lunch at work 🙂
Paris, August 28, 2025
Zeejay