Celebrating bland cooking around the world
"You don't have to be tasteless to be tasteless." Dr. Chris Pepin-Neff
About Us
Bland Food Heaven
The Bland and the Beautiful is more than a website, it is a style of cooking and living that celebrates simplicity and fun! We believe that bland is just as sophisticated as food with a multiplicity of flavors. If there was ever an anti-foodie website then you have found it here at The BlandandtheBeautiful.com.
Bland is a response to four trends within foodie culture that has seen flavor become - a symbol of class status rather than cooking; biased so that more ingredients and toppings are seen as automatically better; negatively constructed so that bland eating is bad eating; and a way for people to take the whole thing way too seriously!
There is an important side to all of this; however, that can be seen in a number of different areas. Bland cooking is often portrayed as a value judgment against people. For instance, some see bland eating as something for baby food, poor people, college students, picky eaters, people with "sensitive" stomachs, or for comfort. In other words, bland eating is only socially acceptable during certain times in your life, when something bad has happened to you, something is wrong with you, or when you are being difficult. It is in these times that you are allowed to impose upon others by choosing bland food as your food of choice. Put another way, bland eating usually requires a disclaimer from you and permission from others.
Both individually and collectively there is pressure against the freedom to choose bland. Indeed, whole cultures are characterized negatively on the basis of whether their food is bland or not. British food is bad because it is perceived as bland (and lesser), while Thai cooking may be perceived as better because it is spicy.
Finally, eating (and photographing) a multiplicity of flavors on a dish is seen as having graduated to sophistication. We are told that our flavors develop as we get older (and wiser) and that we should eat different things. That this is a sign of maturity and economic well being. That you will be judged in the office, at dinner, or on Instagram for the choices you make. Here at TheBlandandtheBeautiful.com we are turning the page in the cook-book to reclaim the individual ingredient, the singular flavor and the modest food picture by stating boldly -- bland is back!
Mission and Goals
So what do we want to do with TheBlandandtheBeautiful.com? There are three missions that have that set up our goals:
1.) Promoting Eating Equality: Whether you are a bland eater (blandetarian/blandivore/blegan) who enjoys lots of ingredients or a complex flavors eater (complexiterian) who enjoys bland food we are here to promote the absence of judgement between these two beautiful and tasty choices.
To do this, we are encouraging tweeting and instagramming pictures of our favorite bland foods with the hash tag #blandpride.
2.) Encouraging Bland Options: One of the most difficult things facing blandetarians and blandivores is eating out at restaurants or going to dinner parties. Dishes and menus sometimes have hidden ingredients that surprise us and these can be embarrassing to try and eat. Here, we see an odd power dynamic where the food we consume is decided by other people and we have to chose between three bad options: upsetting friends or chefs, eating foods that we are not comfortable with or letting food go to waste. In all of this, the bland-eater is seen as the problem, the bad actor. We have a plan to address this!
To do this, we are a.) working on videos that identify the blandification process and we will be posting these to our Youtube page and this website. The videos will help you 'blandify' your meals so the food you order can still be eaten comfortably and doesn't go to waste. We are also developing a function that will allow you to create your own restaurant menu of food you would like to eat. Rather than being asked by the waiter, "would you like to see our menu?" You will be able to approach the wait staff and say, "would you like to see my menu!" Here at TheBlandandtheBeautiful.com we are updating the market to one that serves the customer's needs, including bland tastes.
3.) Education, Celebration & Recipes: Feeling good about bland eating and sharing it with others is the third missions of TheBlandandtheBeautiful.com. Our tagline is "you don't have to be tasteless to be tasteless" and we are going to celebrate our lives and our food.
To do this, we have started by creating a 10 Commandments to celebrate and introduce ourselves to world in a cheeky, fabulous and tasty way! We also have a blog section where recipes can be shared and fun stories can be told.
In all, TheBlandandtheBeautiful.com is about making sure that everyone can have fun and freedom with the food they eat in the lives they live!
10 Commandments of Blandness
10 Commandments:
As a bland eater these commandments should sound quite familiar. As for all rules there are some exceptions, but for the most part these are the rules of being boldly bland.
1. Sauce on the side please
2. Cook my steak medium well please, yes I know that ruins it to you, but for me it is perfect.
3. Iceberg lettuce is my favorite. The texture is awesome.
4. On my way to a fancy restaurant I usually stop at the local Burger King just to be safe.
5. Salt, ketchup, and butter are the holy trinity.
6. No I do not want to try what you're eating.
7. Cereal has it's own food group and so does a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
8. Chicken noodle soup out of a can is never a bad idea.
9. Mashed potatoes go with everything.
10. BLAND IS BEAUTIFUL.