Naturalism

Time magazine lately is wondering if cooking has gone too far in presenting food naturally; it decries
"Consider Mina's preposterous fish. There's no doubt that poaching a fish in seawater produces an effect different from that of salted tap water, or broth, or whatever. But they had to fly that water a thousand miles in a jet plane to get it to Vegas! What can be more unnatural than that?"
But the simple truth is that poaching a fish in seawater is as good as it gets. And if patrons pay for it, they are as entitled to enjoy fresh seawater, as the bourgoisie are entitle to enjoy grapes from Chile, over 10k miles away, or Strawberries out of season from anywhere else.

What the article totally misses, is that what these chefs are stressing, is not the"naturalness" of the foods, but that quality of ingredients wins out over preparation every time. You can saute your peas in gold leaf after marinating in snail sauce for a week, and they wont taste as good as my garden peas picked fresh and cooked quickly after picking with a leaf of mint, also from my garden.