Acquired Tastes, Part II explores the impact and externalities of rapidly evolving food trends and asks if any ubiquitous food trend can be ever sustainable. What happens when an ingredient or culinary tradition is placed outside of its original context and becomes a mega trend; does it retain the flavors that made it so desirable in the first place? While consumers clearly are fascinated with far-flung cuisines, I find it interesting that fascination often doesn’t extend to a curiosity about what it really costs to keep the tap of new and exotic food running continuously. I am curious why we rarely ask ourselves why a particular food is hyped-up at any given moment. Who benefits, and who loses out, from our newfound obsession with the latest taste?

Acquired Tastes, Part II was presented at the Center for Visual Art, MSU Denver in “Cultivate” curated by Cecily Cullen.