Julia Altshuler wrote:

> Bob (this one) wrote:
>
>> Here's the bizarre inconsistency - we want our food to be pretty,
>> every pepper green, shiny, crisp and big, every carrot tapered, bright
>> and heavy. No blemishes, no spots and it should sit unspoiled and
>> unwilted in the refrigerator until we decide to use it, as though it
>> came from some Henry Ford farm producing identically perfect tomatoes,
>> matched melons and esthetically equal eggplants. And there should be
>> no chemicals used to get there; no chemical fertilizers, no
>> insecticides, no fungicides, no waxes to make it shiny, no gases in
>> the boats or railroad cars from the fields to the stores.
>
> A friend told me a story, possibly untrue, about his father the grocer
> who, whenever he had over-ripe or imperfect produce, simply sold it by
> putting a sign saying "organic" on top of it. This was many years ago
> and before there was a legal definition for organic. At that time,
> organic meant carbon-based so the signs were true. So if the bananas
> were past prime, getting black, covered with fruit flies, and obviously
> not selling, he'd dream up something like "Special New Zealand Organic
> Zebra Bananas," and they'd fly out the door. That story, more than
> anything else, brought home to me the truth about how consumers demand
> perfect fruit unless they want chemical fertilizers, no insecticides and
> no fungicides more.

So there we were, experimenting with a whipped custard in my first
restaurant and not only didn't it whip, it sat there as a sodden mess.
I was getting ready to toss it when Marge, my lead cook said, "Give it
to me." She took care of it. Later, when lunch was almost over, I
noticed the specials board. It said that today's lunch special was
some kind of sandwich (I've long since forgotten what kind) with
"Swedish soft custard parfait." Sold it all. Couldn't duplicate it.
Every time thereafter, it worked properly and never sold as well as
the mistake.

Wonder where Marge is now, 28 years later...

Pastorio