The word 'sophisticated' seems to have so many connotations attached to it. I doubt everybody thinks the same thing when they hear this word. I sort of imagine very high society types moving in high society circles looking down on us lowly mortals...hehe! Which is to say that I associate a sort of surface polish with it rather than inner polish. I like the opposite—inner polish with simple exterior. That's not the same as what people might call simplicity. Simplicity could be interpreted as somebody who is not 'too complex'. I guess I wouldn't have much in common with this kind of simple. What I am thinking of is more on the lines of 'simple living, high thinking'. Sophistication obviously does not have to mean simple thinking. It could of course be inner and outer sophistication. Though I am yet to encounter a real-life example of this.

Recently I found 'sophistication' used in connection with food in two very different contexts. I had never thought of these two things together before. I may or may not have mentioned explicitly but it sure must have come out... I love food ;) Unequivocally, wholeheartedly, unreservedly, unabashedly, ... you get the picture? But I am also rather picky about food, like with a whole lot of stuff. When I say I love food, I mean food that has flavours that I can appreciate. I'd put Indian, Chinese, Thai, Italian... broadly into this bucket. Of course, there's a whole lot of Chinese food I cannot have. There's a whole lot of Italian I may not have even tried. But I feel if we include only vegetarian stuff, I am more or less going to enjoy what comes under this broad bucket. With sweet stuff my bucket gets way way broader, but I am excluding the sweet stuff for this discussion.

I read this LinkedIn post by an academic about when she was just starting out in the academic world. She went for a job interview at this very top university in the US, and later was invited by a professor for a dinner at their place along with some others as a getting to know each other thing. The main course was steak tartare. She said that she couldn't bring herself to eat it but did so because she did not want to be seen as not sophisticated enough for such a dish. Now, I had never heard of this steak tartare thing before this post. Also, I don't eat beef. When I read what it was, I found it shocking. But then again, I have mentioned the food I like, and this doesn't fit that kind of profile. What I found more curious was the word 'sophisticated' in this context. As if being able to eat this French dish makes one 'sophisticated' somehow. I can't wrap my head around it. It sort of matches my view of the word 'sophistication' as a kind of arbitrary construct rather anything to do with anything intrinsic or substantial. Soon after I came across an interview of a globally known Indian chef where she said that somehow Indian food is not considered sophisticated enough and therefore people do not expect to pay a lot for it. She charged a good price in her signature restaurant and people did pay. This made me again think about what is it about food that it can be labelled sophisticated and not so sophisticated? It almost seems that if the food comes from certain parts of the world, it gets one label, and other parts, another. Irrespective of how much people enjoy one or the other. Bizarre when you think about it. I'd rather embrace the simple and wholesome... I'll aspire to sophistication where it really matters I think ;)