I for one agree with Anthony Bourdain's Celebrity Chef Smackdown! but I also think he does not go far enough. When the food network first premiered there were a number of excellent shows that taught first and entertained second. They were hosted by accomplished chefs, sommeliers and food critics. Some even featured butchers, fish mongers and grocers even farmers explaining the latest trends in food and eating. There were shows about wine, vegetarianism, home economics and food news. I seldom changed the channel. But, the last 8 years or so has seen the network devolve into a reality based network where we are supposed to believe that the overly scripted confrontations are typical "real life dramas" (see Top Chef) and that Rachel Ray and Paula Deen are the custodians of American cuisine. Pffft!
If you want an idea of the idiocy that has become the Food Network and Rachel Ray look no further than here (I urge you to read the comments, they are by far the most entertainment the Food Network has provided in a long time). But, in the spirit of the best Iron Chef battle, I give you a Paula Deen recipe that rivals Ray's. Has cooking in North America sunk to the level that the network for food has to post recipes for cooking slices of bacon and warming peas?! But what Bourdain misses in his smackdown was any mention of what is probably the worst show on Food Network, Outrageous Food. This show is nothing more than a celebration of the worst aspects of American consumerism. This homage to gluttony and obesity looks at the food trend of over indulgence and celebrates the act of culinary masturbation.
There is nothing positive to be taken away from Outrageous Food in terms of food culture, it is strictly the celebration of a pleasurable act that tv censors will not cut. In fact, all of the shows on Food Network are a microcosm of America's pornographic love affair with food. America, through the Food Network, have simply replaced gluttony for lust in their entertainment - I guess explaining to their kids why a grown man is trying to stuff a 21/2 pound burrito into his stomach is less awkward than explaining the act of making love.
If you think the comparison to pornography is hyperbole I suggest you watch this. Bourdain is a genius when he is holding up a mirror to his own trade. He is right, of course, producers and directors know exactly what buttons to press when it comes to filming and presenting shows about food, his show included. Let me say, there is nothing wrong in experiencing pleasure during this life - it is after all a short one and you only go around once, but I really don't need to see others indulging. And when you consider the consequences of the ever rising costs of food around the globe does it seem justified to be celebrating the availability of food we in the west experience today? Shouldn't some sort of moderation be practiced? Or, do we really need shows that portray the extravagant every week? In my view, if food is sex, I would prefer the shows that were sex education rather than simple porn.
I will grant you that Bourdain himself seems like a walking contradiction, but at least he admits he is and he has never claimed to be a great chef. He knows he is playing a game that so far he is winning at and is going to run the table for what it is worth. But from his honest candour has come some of the best insights into the culinary world and his No Reservations show has opened our eyes in the west to how poor people are able to make the greatest of feasts out of the simplest ingredients in life. In My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals, Bourdain points out the irony that the more accomplished a chef is at elevating cuisine the more they personally long for the simpler foods of their childhood.
Too many of the hosts on Food Network seem to think that elevating cuisine is adding gourmet ingredients to simple meals. Good shows about food are not about following a recipe or hiding bad food under gourmet ingredients or 5 pounds of butter and lard, they are about respecting the simple ingredients and turning them into something that says something about yourself and the culture you were raised in. If cooking is supposed to say something about culture then the Food Network is saying" we have none".
No comments:
Post a Comment