Can we talk?

It is time to recognize that another word has gotten out of control. It is rampaging through the cocktail (and general culinary) industry, making those who employ it look insufferably twee. And worse, making the entire industry which is perilously close to embracing it look twee as well. I mean more twee than craft cocktails already kind of are. To be sure, this word is also being abused in many other arenas as well, but I write about cocktails, so that’s where it pisses me off the most. It’s just pretentious as hell.

I’m talking about our sudden need to claim that we “curate” everything. Stop it.

First off, most people don’t know what it means, even if they just read the bare bones definition a few minutes ago. Most folks hear curate or curator and think of it as someone who collects and presents rare and precious things in museums. The positive image that probably lurks in their subconscious when they think of curators, especially if they are considering identifying themselves as such, is this guy:

No. That guy is in “Purchasing”.

A curator is more this guy.

Not quite the same, huh?

But either way, the subtext cocktail types who employ the word curate want to portray is collecting, organizing, presenting, and protecting things that represent the great works of a civilization. You know, as in, “This belongs in a museum!” And that is the subtext most people who see the word employed have as well. And that’s the problem.

A cocktail menu, I don’t care it is Dead Rabbit’s or Smuggler’s Cove’s, is not a collection of the great works of a civilization. Sure, the Manhattan may well be the single greatest culinary achievement of American civilization. I happen to think it is. But let’s face it, your list of house-created seasonal recipes is not the Louvre. It’s not even Ripley’s. And even if a cocktail menu is made up of nothing but time-honored masterworks, prepared to perfection… it’s a list of drinks. And putting them on a menu does nothing to protect them for posterity.

It is a colossally pretentious word for a list of products available for sale in, for practical purposes, unlimited quantities. Even if you have a “carefully curated selection of rare whiskeys”, it is still a bunch of bottles on a shelf or three. If a particular bottle is still made, it is something for sale, again, in relatively unlimited quantities. If it has been discontinued, the purpose of offering it for sale is ultimately to destroy it permanently. None of all this is curation.

The most charitable interpretation of this phenomenon is just another cutesy element in an industry that already dances so close with being “precious”, a chaperone needs to swing by with a ruler to separate them for the craft’s own good.

At it’s worst, this “curation” fetish is self-important, “Tulip Bubble” kind of thinking that encourages a dangerous disconnect between the value of a product as perceived by customers and by producers. Whether you are Le Lion de Paris or Bob’s Bar (The Cultural Hub of the Midwest!), You. Are. A. Business. You are not a revered academic institution.

Seriously guys, this term is creeping into use by people I both like and highly respect. Stop it. You are only damaging your industry and your own enterprise. And looking just a bit like an ass doing it.

The post The Next Word We Need To Banish: Curated appeared first on The Pegu Blog.