Ugly delicious
Letter from the editor
Food is, inarguably, a multi-sensory experience: the smell of sweet tomatoes and fresh basil cooking on the stove; the bubbling sound of boiling water; the feel of pasta burning your mouth as you test its doneness. But you know what’s harder than making something taste delicious? Making it taste delicious and look pretty.
It’s enough to grill and marinate a pork loin or sear a steak (above) at home without the added pressure of making it picture-ready. Don’t discount the beautiful process of preheating, chopping, seasoning, and refreshing the laptop to check the next step for this fantastic roasted aloo gobhi just because it looks messier than the recipe photo. (To be clear, I meant beautiful on the inside. Not, like, Instagram beautiful.)
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This homemade skillet pizza is melty, cheesy, veggie goodness. These Thai-style lettuce wraps are quick and tasty, perfect for a midweek meal. This no-cream cream of broccoli soup is fantastic for dinner, with torn off chunks of crusty bread and a crisp glass of white, and saves well for lunch the next day. A bowl of miso salmon and eggplant soba noodle stir fry is totally mouthwatering and pairs well with Netflix. This crave-able banana bread with chocolate graham crumble tastes just as good baked in a less-cute, regular ol’ loaf pan.
All of those dishes have faces only mothers could love. Unless you have a lighting rig, a few surfaces to choose from, and a food stylist. But they all taste so good.
True story: once, I abstained from posting a tweaked recipe because the quick-and-dirty iPhone photo I took was sub-par. That’s ridiculous. I finally gathered my courage, posted my chickpeas with cilantro and coconut tweak, and lived to tell the tale.
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Did you make a galette or this grilled eggplant stuffed with spiced pork or a batch of tahini cookies with pistachios or some zucchini schnitzel? Take a mediocre picture of it, tag us (#totasteco) if you’d like and revel in the praise we’ll undoubtedly send back, but most importantly dig in. Enjoy it. Talk about it. Make it again a different way.
Make this salted caramel tarte tatin and when some of the apples clumsily stick to the pan…smoosh them back in, lick your caramel-y fingers, cut into the cake, and as Julia Child would say, never apologize. Just cook. And eat.
Can’t wait to see some terrible pics of your delicious food!
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