Why are there so many kinds of mustard and only 1 kind of ketchup?

I remember my mom sitting at our kitchen table, filling out surveys sent by food companies. These companies were trying to determine what constituted the “perfect” cake mix, spaghetti sauce, or coffee. Then Howard Moscowitz, a psychophysicist and market researcher. was hired by Campbell’s and his findings turned the food industry on its ear and she never filled out another survey. He determined that there wasn’t one universal choice but rather there were many “perfect spaghetti sauces”. The assumption Campbell’s was making was that they simply needed to improve upon the Prego brand of their spaghetti sauce, which if you’re a child of the ‘60’s - ‘‘70’s, meant the thin, Italian, no lumps variety that sank to the bottom of your bowl of pasta. All the while, one-third of the population preferred chunky! So in 1980, they rebranded and gave options of plain, spicy and extra chunky, the sales soared!

The same phenomenon took place in the mustard industry when instead of only having the option of ketchup or mustard on your hotdog, you now could inquire, “Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?” Now you know I’m a senior!

And indeed, today when I checked my fridge, there sits a bottle of Dijon, a dollar store bottle of French’s, (for the grandkids who don’t know the difference), honey mustard, Keen’s hot mustard that cleans out your sinuses, and a grainy mustard (terrific on a ham sandwich) and dry mustard for mom’s mac ‘n cheese recipe. There are literally hundreds of kinds of mustard.

But ketchup? When French’s tried introducing “gourmet” ketchup, interestingly, people said it tasted “off” and preferred the ketchup of their childhood. Perhaps that’s because traditional ketchup hits all five basic taste sensations: sweet, sour, salty, umami, and bitter.

So what’s this got to do with hospitality? Sometimes simple is better.

When I began having people for dinner, I thought having a wide variety of food to choose from was a way to show I cared. By the time I finished fiddling with appetizers, then checking everyone’s steak to see how well done each one was, while making sure the shrimp weren’t turning to rubber, …well you can imagine- it was brutal!

When you're overwhelmed with choices—different cuisines, dietary considerations, recipes, presentation styles—it can lead to paralysis by analysis. You might spend so much time trying to plan the "perfect" meal that you either procrastinate, cancel, or host with stress rather than joy.

A perfectionist by nature, one of my greatest challenges is the need to curate a flawless dining experience instead of simply welcoming guests with what we have. It was way easier when we were on a tight budget. Back then, few of our friends and family had much and nobody expected anything gourmet. Meals together were frequent and spontaneous. A pot of soup, made the night before from whatever was leftover in the fridge, a loaf of bread, and a peach crisp from the freezer topped with vanilla ice cream was all we needed to connect.

Could it be that the high cost of groceries may drive us back to the basics and actually have a positive effect on our ability to connect?

It’s food for thought.

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