Adding some extra spin to our menus

From pan-friend salmon, to air-dried ham, the way many restaurants and supermarkets describe food gets Chris’s organic, grass-fed goat.

- Chris van Schaick

RECENTLY I’ve been thinking a good deal about air-dried ham. It’s not the ham itself that’s been on my mind. It’s the air driedness of it. We nod sagely when we see the words on a menu. But what happens in this air drying? Is the ham hung out on a washing line on a bright, windy Monday morning? Is it bundled into a tumble drier? Or is it tied to a car radio aerial and taken for a spin along the M27? And anyway, what other method is there to dry anything other than with air – hot or cold?

We’ve undoubtedly added to the gaiety of nations by adding an extra level of loving detail to descriptions of food. Not just on restaurant menus, but on supermarket labels too. In my other life as a words for-business bloke, I’ve even contributed to the trend.