Magic berry cheat

[Alice Levitt]

I've written on this forum before about my affection for the Planet Green show Future Food, starring the staff at Moto restaurant in Chicago. Last night I watched an episode that really made me think.

Chef Homaro Cantu and his pastry chef, Ben Roche, made a tasting menu for guests out of creeping thyme, aloe and other plants that grow widely but aren't generally thought of as edible. It's all stuff that is recognized as bitter and unpleasant to eat. The chefs made it palatable to diners by providing them with magic berries to eat first, coating their tastebuds and making their efforts taste less horrible.

I couldn't help but feel like that's cheating. I would be pissed if I shelled out $135 for a tasting menu of stuff that's so gross that I have to trick my tastebuds to eat it. Cantu called it a possible "miracle" that would allow the poor and homeless to survive on plants that we currently ignore as a food source. I think if they can afford magic berries, they can afford less disgusting food.
What do you think?

[Undead Molly]

I think it's a fun novelty idea for a television show tasting menu, but you're right about everything else. I'm sure they weren't doing anything dangerous on the show, but don't plants generally taste bad to us for a reason? There are, of course, lots of exceptions but I thought that our tastes have evolved such that things that will make us sick also taste bad to us, ensuring that we will avoid them. Like aloe, for example. The bitterness of aloe is from the compound aloin which is a powerful stimulant laxative - helpful and good for digestion in small doses but could make people very sick if they don't know how to identify the least toxic aloe species and prepare them correctly. Even with the most friendly aloe you can get diarrhea, abdominal cramping, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, etc. if you're not careful to consume only the innermost jelly from the leaves. The bitterness is a warning not to eat too much of it, if you "magic berry" the natural warning away you could end up miserably camped out in the bathroom or worse!

Besides, aren't there plenty of weeds and invasive species that are good to eat un-magically? Dandelion greens, cattail, clover (our state flower!), fiddlehead ferns, stinging nettle, wild leeks, burdock, lamb's quarters, various berries if you can get them before the birds do....