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March 15, 2006

Feeling safer yet?

The petty regulation of small businesses is one of my pet peaves.
On this second day of Purim, the capricious use of state power to oppress the small man is on my mind.

One of my favorite stories (after the scroll of Ester) of the victory of the small man over the petty power of the state concerns Vidal Sassoon, famous hairdresser and not-so-famous
fighter in the Israeli war of independence.

In 1966...[he] moved to New York and promptly got into a fight with state cosmetology regulators. Sassoon's precision cuts had freed straight-haired women from the confines of permanents, teasing, and gobs of hairspray, but to practice his trade in New York he was required to take a test based on the sort of hairdressing he hated. "The test requires that I do finger waving, reverse pin-curling, and a haircut in which you thin as you cut--things that haven't been used since Gloria Swanson was in silent movies," he said. "I simply cannot take it on the grounds that it violates everything I've worked for for 21 years." Sassoon eventually forced state regulators to promise they'd change the test.

But this nonsense is alive and well. Yesterday the NY Times reported chefs using Sous Vide are being fined and otherwise harassed by the food police. Sous Vide is when you pack food in plastic and then evacuate the air in the package. You then simmer the food at low heat, allowing tender, moist food. But it isn't as if these dishes are being foisted upon unsuspecting diners. This is isn't cooking a steak dropped on the floor. This is a avant-garde technique deliberately sought out by foodies looking to taste at the cutting edge. Save the cops for the thieves and murderers.

Posted by OneEyedMan at March 15, 2006 9:38 AM

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