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Creative children and clever chefs play with food.

Food chemists have devised means to make unhealthy food irresistible.

Snacking is not play.

If you have observed younger children squishing Play-Doh, you likely also have noticed them tasting it. Reassuring text on those yellow cans carefully notes that the material is “non-toxic.” That's a good thing, because when mushed to a tempting multicolor, the play medium becomes the object of desire. And in the mouth it goes.

But usually not more than once or twice because, well, let me ask, have you ever tasted Play-Doh? The inviting medium does not match the message.

Playing With Your Food

Inventive older children might chew their toast into a map of Texas, or mound mashed potatoes into a volcano, or, if reluctantly eyeballing the vegetables on their plate, make a face out of cucumber slices and string beans. If this playfulness, a delaying action, isn’t perfect for balancing the meal, it’s great for creativity and exploration.

Play is its own kind of nourishment, but not only for recalcitrant children. For their part, grown-up professional chefs make gustatory mischief with food arrangements, especially with desserts. In France, wedding celebrations or baptism parties often feature a pastry tower called a croquembouche (freely translated: “mouth cruncher”). This conical, comical stack of cream puffs delights at least three senses.

With greater premeditation and subtlety, ingenious chefs will craft surprises. Fermenting berries to make an ice cream topping supplies a tangy, counterintuitive fizz. Play encourages novelty and thrives with it.

I once imagined a dinner party where all the food courses looked like something else. The entrée, for example, served in a parfait goblet, contained........

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