Now it’s the very opposite

Looked at from another angle, in the past soft food was more prestigious than crunchy food. I had always put this down to two factors. First, that soft food was refined food, refined in the same sense that metals are refined, processing out the dross and getting to the pure essence or nature of the food. Second, since only the rich could regularly afford laborious soft food (easily pounded or mashed roots being a major exception), soft food was desirable food.

Source: Of Soft Food, Now and in the Past | Rachel Laudan