News & views | Should we be aiming at ‘the perfect’?

News & views

Should we be aiming at ‘the perfect’?

Take a look at these jars of marmalade. Same recipe, made within one week of each other but with a slightly different colour and taste.

The one on the right is ever so slightly darker and richer than the one on the left, I’m not sure why. I thought I cooked it for a fractionally shorter time but maybe at a slightly faster boil. Or maybe the lemon I used was slightly smaller than the week before giving more of an orangey taste. Maybe there were more pips this week. Who knows?

Is one of them better than the other? One perfect, the other not? If you’re not a fan of bitter marmalade you might like neither. I love both.

It made me wonder whether the search for perfection in food, appearance, relationships, whatever isn’t a recipe for disappointment. My Guardian colleague Felicity Cloake writes a fascinating column which I read avidly every week which aims to find the ultimate version of a dish. But if you made it differently would that be wrong? I’m sure Felicity would be the first to say no.

What worries me a little about this constant search for perfection - which I must confess I succumb to myself - is that it holds up the idea of a standard we somehow fail if we don’t achieve which could be daunting for less experienced cooks. An orthodoxy to which we must all subscribe.

If I suggest that Guinness is a great match for oysters for example and you don’t like Guinness - or oysters for that matter - it won’t appeal to you. Perfection is relative to the individual and the moment - or is it?

Judging by the popularity of these features there must be a significant number of you who want to achieve perfection. Or is ‘good’, good enough for you?

 

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