Malcolm Gladwell had a wonderful essay on ketchup in the New Yorker’s food issue. The most intriguing part of the article is not specifically about ketchup at all, but the research of Howard Moskowitz. Remember when extra-chunky spaghetti sauces started appearing in the supermarket? He’s the one behind it. The essence of his discoveries from taste-testing for Pepsi and Prego is that there is “plural perfection.” Not everyone likes the same thing. It seems obvious, but food manufacturers were originally catering to a mainstream taste that they tried to meld together from focus groups and other research methods. Instead, Moskowitz showed that segmentation could uncover new profits, hence the concoction of a new product for extra-chunky sauce lovers. Now there is “very nearly an optimal spaghetti sauce for every man, woman, and child in America.” It remains to be seen whether the “Moskowitz rule” applies to ketchup (and I don’t think purple and blue ketchup count).