How often have you found yourself eating something that has little resemblance to the photographic claim on the outside of the box or to the image accompanying the recipe? You can’t even imagine what expense marketers go to and how much these images are manipulated to convince people to buy things.

I hereby classify this as “eating outside the box", named so because the contents are only a remote likeness to the packaging photographs. For example, in the store, those images of huge chunks of meat and chicken catch your eye, but upon weighing several samples I found the meat volume quite a bit less than the box indicated. Then, there are those bright colored vegetables that look like they just came from the Farmer’s Market but in truth are rather anemic pebbles or chunks of produce. Often, the vegetables are either not cooked to edible tenderness or are overcooked. When buying pre-cooked stir-fry dinners, you will see prime-looking vegetables on the box. If you’re lucky enough to prepare it so that all the vegetables are consistent in texture and size you may be able to “eat inside the bag". More often then not, however, what you see in the picture and what you get is often like an unreliable weather report: overcast with intermittent sunshine.

I have always been amused by the product at supermarkets which promises you a miracle in a box by only adding a pound of hamburger. It is known as HAMBURGER HELPER. A more honest marketer would create a box showing a hamburger patty with crutches walking alongside a rice nurse or pasta doctor. However, the box misrepresents its content by showing a complete dinner: what you are eating is “outside the box". Other products from the same brand are TUNA HELPER & PORK HELPER. And just down the aisles from those popular products is none other but an INDIGESTION HELPER. What would we do without our handy antacid? Not to worry, for every eating mistake some pharmaceutical company is waiting to solve your problem with the promise of relief right on the box.

Apparently a perfect picture is worth a million dollars. If you think Hollywood has to do movie takes over and over, imagine the salary paid to the photographers whose task is to glorify and enhance food. The bright colors and box designs lead you to believe that a culinary Emeril or Martha creation is inside to please your taste buds. But in reality, it’s the trust towards authoritative figures that exceeds good common sense in our current non-cooking society! Whenever we see a bright box, we shall assume that a great dinner awaits us without the need to collect recipe ingredients, cook or wash pots and pans. While we may be savoring a fabulous dinner made without effort, the truth of the matter will be that what we eat will taste little better than consuming the box.

I can’t possibly write about all this foolishness without mentioning LUNCH IN A PLASTIC CUP. The commercials for this product, most appropriately named “Soup in Hand", show a deliriously happy consumer walking down the street carrying his plastic cup of soup clutched in his hand. While it may be convenient, the safety of heating a plastic container in the microwave has not yet been established. Most people prefer having homemade soup within minutes than considering the risks this chemical cup of petrified veggies and sodium may pose. What you expect and what get once you open the cup is parallel to what a youngster really wanted from his Grandma for his birthday and what was really in the box. Oh well, life is just full of reality checks! Is it not?

Last but not least, my latest discovery in deception was hardly what we would expect from the world number 1 authority in food expertise and perfectionist of the culinary world. On the October 2005 cover of the MARTHA STEWART LIVING magazine, there is a photograph of two traditional pies: pumpkin pie and apple pie. While this is certainly the right time of season for these images, there is something uniquely different about the pumpkin pie in this photo. I noticed that the outer edges of the pie are carefully shaped and baked. However, the center of the pumpkin pie never saw the center of any oven. It is obviously completely uncooked. While it is a great photo, it is a fraudulent pie. This is yet another great example of eating outside of the box, however in this case it’s eating outside of the magazine. A mere publishing faux pas I am sure that will be overlooked by many and excused by a public that does not have the ability to detect the real from the close imitation.