“The only possible reason for drenching any meat or fish dish in a gravy, sauce, or dressing containing vinegar, lemon juice, sour cream, soy sauce,  or any of the many other utterly disgusting, repulsively sour-tasting substances that are almost ubiquitously used for this in contemporary fancy cookery, is that the meat or fish being served is stinking rotten, so that the only way to hide the revolting smell and taste of it is to smother it in something even stronger and more disgusting but that the idiot punters (the diners) are used to, and have been convinced is sophisticated. More or less the same presumably applies to gravies based on beer or wine: pour in a bottle of their favourite tipple and they will probably not notice the actual ingredients of the meal.”