I ate soft for a week. Is it better for health?

In solidarity with toothless people, dental surgery patients and babies, our journalist took up the challenge of eating nothing but soft food for a week. She found her happiness on the tables of chefs and in processed food.

Day 1: pout

I open the fridge door. Right at my eye level, a magnificent duck breast in its paper (sorry for the vegetarians who read me). I lift it delicately, I take a look at my gleaming blender and say to myself: “Oh! why not ? It can't be that bad.” A shadow passes behind me, my spouse, followed by a draft of cold, icy air: "Don't even think about it."

As you can see, for me, meat – and food in general – is sacred. In my dining room, we don't eat, we taste. The food is not vulgarly cooked, it roasts, simmers, browns, browns, browns. In short, the food, we make a whole cheese out of it. And since this morning, the mechanism is silted up. No more lamb's lettuce, let's get to the slack. Puree, liquid yogurt, soup and camembert with a teaspoon will be my menus this week. Last night, I said goodbye to the crunchiness of my milk chocolate bar with almonds and fleur de sel for seven days – an eternity, then. This afternoon, I sprinkle my squash soup with grated Swiss cheese, hoping already that it won't completely melt and will give me the opportunity for a discreet bite. When did I get there?

A few days ago, I clicked on the article "In the kitchen, beware of the diktat of the soft", published by Louis Jeudi on the Atabula site, an information platform on gourmet cuisine. He writes: “In the agri-food sector, ultra-processing, which consists in selling to the consumer artefacts of ground food then salted or sweetened, has made its nest since the 80s. In restaurants, the omnipotence of the hamburger symbolizes this desire to break the natural texture of the products.” His words hit me. He is right. Cyril Lignac and his “greedy, crunchy” are only a decoy. Industry lobotomizes us, softens us.

I speak about it to Kilien Stengel, author, observer of the gastronomic world and university in Tours. He answers me: “The question is not: 'Is there more slack in food than before?, but: 'Is it society that values, over time, elements soft, or do people choose to see only these foods and eat them?' “He, at least, does not mince his words! I will try to answer this question.

Day 2: madeleine of Moust

At first glance, the slack reminds me of childhood. Yogurt drinks, cake batter, microwaved pain au chocolat, hot chocolate, bread crumbs, undercooked nuggets and mashed potatoes. Besides, the mashed potatoes that are on my plate this afternoon strike me as Proust's “soft” madeleine. I took the liberty of renaming this phenomenon of olfactory reminiscence after rereading the passage that mentions it in the novel Du Côté de Chez Swann. Here are a few sentences: “And all of a sudden, the memory appeared to me. This taste was that of the little piece of madeleine that, on Sunday mornings, at Combray (because that day I didn't go out before mass time), when I went to say hello to him in his room. , my aunt Léonie gave it to me after soaking it in her tea or lime blossom infusion.” The madeleine is soaked! She is so soft!

Taking a dip is divisive. Me, I hate it. The sight of someone lapping up their dripping coffee from a croissant dipped in the black liquid disgusts me. However, some cooks have made it a trademark. This is the case of Guy Savoy, three-star chef in Paris. One of his signature dishes is artichoke soup with truffles. It is served with a brioche that the customer is invited to dip on the plate. It is this gesture, this mixture of textures and tastes, which is valued in this dish. In high gastronomy, the meat can also be tasted very, very tender, even melting, like Japanese beef, wagyu. “You will notice that when it comes to taste, to designate the different soft textures, the vocabulary is rich: creamy, fondant, tender, unctuous, ethereal… describes Kilien Stengel. These words are there to enhance, glorify the food. The term "soft" is rather pejorative.

I'm trying to qualify my toast as a tapenade on crustless sandwich bread. Rather than soft, I would say it's sticky, clinging to my palate. I finally swallow after chewing on this snack. And I ask myself: “Where does the hard end and where does the soft begin?” Does slack need to be chewed? I would say yes. My editor thinks it should be swallowable effortlessly. So where does the liquid start? For the academic, it is a very relative notion: “We have in our representation of the slack a degree of acceptance which depends on our individual appreciation. This will elasticize the softness validation.”

Street cops and the community know what needs to be done. The politicians are playing games with people's lives. I'… https://t.co/YaSh36nS9C

— Sal LaBarbera Fri Jul 23 18:35:58 +0000 2021

On the same subject ⋙ Obesity: what if eating cold encouraged us to consume more?

⋙My fascination for these people who eat, a dive into Food ASMR

Day 3: soft, it's the taste

Third day of soup. Well, she's good, I'm not complaining. But I will still have to diversify my diet. I type on Google: “soft food idea”. Past the recipes offered by dentists to their patients who have just undergone surgery, I discovered the existence of a book with a comical title: La Cuisine molle pour édentés (ed. Les Carnets du Dessert de Lune). I contact the Belgian cook Michel Dehoux, co-author of the book. “We have always tried to soften food, he insists from the start. The dentist has only been around for a hundred years, you know. Before, it was tooth pullers or barbers who took care of it.”

The former chef of the restaurant Le Tournant, in Ixelles, is now a “tartist” in the Gard. “I set up a tart workshop here for guinguettes, restaurants, old people’s clubs, etc.” The idea for this cookbook for toothless people, published in 2005, came to him while he was chatting with a regular customer, Ronald, at the bar of his restaurant: “He must have been 84 or 85 years old at the era, recalls Michel Dehoux. Ronald was one of the first post-war music hall drag queens in the 1940s and 1950s. And he had a problem with his teeth that he couldn't get fixed because he was allergic to the anesthetics that dentists use.” One day, Ronald looks enviously at the restaurant menu and says to the chef: “Ah! damn, I wish I could eat something, but I can't.” The cooks reflect and are irritated by this culinary inequality. “We said to ourselves that we could try to do something, recalls Michel Dehoux. We wanted to write a book, offer recipes just for Ronald, and finally, we did it for all toothless people. As the idea is put on the table, a designer who works on the covers of books for a publishing house happens to be in the restaurant and overhears the conversation. “He tells us: 'I know a publisher that might be of interest'. The next day, the editor shows up at the restaurant and he gives us two months to write the book.” When it comes out, it's a success: “The book found itself presented next to the Da Vinci Code, which had also just been released, in the biggest bookstores in Brussels, and was even classified as a favorite at Fnac in literature and cooking! It is not only a cookbook, but also a literary book, a kind of exercise in style.” Untraceable today, the book was sent to me in the form of a typescript by Michel Lehoux.

And from the preface, I enjoy: “The function of this booklet is neither dietetic nor therapeutic, it is revolutionary. Allow all chipped (complete, partial, intermittent) to overcome their frustrations. [...] Tastebuds, grannies or brats, toothless from all countries, of any age or color, let's unite! Let's fight against the ostracism of the orthodoxy of odontostomatology!” The work, resolutely political, is addressed to the orphans of the quenotte. I decide to pick a few ideas from it: camembert in its wooden box, barigoule artichoke, chestnut flan, etc. But I find myself frightened by recipes that smack of the last century, such as “veal brains with green sauce”. Very little for me.

Day 5: don't let up

It gets hard. This afternoon, I savor a delicious aligot. Tastefully, we can't say that the experience is difficult to carry out – although incorporating meat into my menus is almost impossible. For dessert, raspberry/vanilla milkshake. It's a delight. The frustration is not in the taste, but in the time spent at the table. When you chew little, it goes quickly. To prolong the pleasure, I consider an aligot mouthwash. Okay.

Today, I feel a little sorry for the residents of nursing homes and the elderly. Finding a dung of food on your plate every day is not a dream. To overcome this problem, companies, such as Epikura, offer soft food that is shaped so that it regains the shape of the original food. Imagine a mashed veal chop that has been sculpted to restore its appearance. Honestly, aesthetically, it's not a success. Medically, it is. These meals are intended for people suffering from dysphagia: those who have difficulty swallowing and are at high risk of taking a wrong turn. Nutritionists, using tools called “texturometers” or even “consistometers”, determine the right consistency to avoid accidents.

Tonight, as a good follower of junk food, I offer myself a soft pleasure. The worst, in my opinion, that you can find in terms of junk food: a frozen hamburger. Hop, four minutes in the microwave. I lift the bread, it's still a bit cold in the middle, I add a minute. Hou, this time, it burns. I take a bite. It's salty, sweet, sticky, not good. I finish anyway. The last piece is a little overcooked. It's hard, like toasted. My molars are happy.

Day 7: give some slack

“So, the slack? It's finish ? What you miss the most ?" On the landing, I meet my neighbor to whom I told the crazy idea I had a week ago. The bread ! The traditional baguette, not overcooked but crispy. That of the bakery a little further, but which is better. “Bread has known it all!” teaches me Kilien Stengel. After WWII it was baked and had a big crust. In the 70s, it was the industrialization and the soft baguettes of large and medium-sized surfaces, criticized but valued for their price. Bakers then fought against this industrial bread-making, judging these baguettes too soft and too white. From now on, a good baguette must be crunchy, well-cooked, golden, except that at no time, in this war between these two worlds of bakery, has the question of the consumer's interest been raised. The latter must live with the tastes of his baker.”

Subjected to slack for a week, I saw it everywhere at the supermarket: mochi – a Japanese dessert made from sticky rice – at the top of a gondola with chocolate mousse. I also found it on Pinterest, where there are many “soft food idea” boards and on Instagram, where influencers praise the merits of meals to drink, survivalism atmosphere. And today, I only see what can be chewed: crisps, cherry tomatoes, apples, roasted or braised meat, green salad, nougatine, the chocolate Easter bunny that I bite into one ear…” You know, it's a bit like the story of the drunk man who loses his keys in the night, underlines the observer of the gastronomic world. He searches for his trousseau only in the light of the street lamp, and not in the shadows. Is the slack in the light?” Yes, I believe it is, but that doesn't mean you have to consume it all the time.

Article published in NEON magazine in April-May 2021