Food is an integral part of our short and pitiful existence. We rely on it as fuel but we have also come to enjoy it, to relish it one might say... In fact, with the exception of sex, it has become probably the most wealthily documented and talked about subjects. There is a tremendous amount of reference to food in all walks of life, but perhaps most of all, is on our tv screens, and not just in adverts.
The diversity of cookery programmes is somewhat overwhelming. For the laid back approach one can enjoy Jamie Oliver, if you like a sense of competition with your food, go with Masterchef, if you like soft pornography served with your chips, i recommend Nigella Lawson and if you like Top Gear, you're bound to like Gordon Ramsey (And Nigella).
My particular favorite, not listed above, is when food is mashed mercilessly into science until they vaguely see eye to eye. The culmination of such a process is Heston Blumenthal and his take on food. His approach to food is one that can only be described as obscene, it is as if willy wonka (wasn't clinically insane) and had been unleashed on to the entire culinary world. His last and current series' have focused laying down a different themed feast (first the ages of history and now fairy tales), each week, to a handful of low A to high B list celebrities with invariable success. He has explored from flying pies to savory testicle sweets, from recreating Alice in wonderland's multi flavoured concoction, to jelly with dildos in - Nigellas next step i feel. His work is simply awe-inspiring and the programme gripping, if you don't like food, marvelling at his command on science should suffice.
It was during the last installment, however, when the sheer scale of our excess hit me. I wasn't shocked, but i had never confronted the thought directly. It was when Heston went about constructing a house out of confectionery and cake, a house so substantial that its walls needed structural reinforcement bars (in this case pieces of rock) and welding to build, that i realised that perhaps, in the name of entertainment, this might not be the 'right' thing to be doing. Just imagine if the programme, at this point, was played on a projector to an African village. The people wouldn't understand for they cannot make houses and nor can they find food. Here Heston combines both in the name of excess, but with no intention to live in it or have it wholly consumed. The African people's disbelief might just be enough to make them completely malfunction; to make their bowels just release their contents, their stomachs tighten and vomit, and their eyes be blown from off their faces.
The point is that the western world, through no fault of our own (in fact because of our intuition, intelligence and a hospitable climate), have so much food that we can afford to take the piss. We can afford to build houses with our food, to cook a michlan style course everyday as 'practises' in preparation for Fridays all-in-one final, to form competitions in which the prize is not to consume your lavish creation, but a sum of money with which to splash about on more food cooked by someone else, because we have the resources and we have the viewing demand that implicitly implies to us that 'this must be right'... if it wasn't, we would all stop watching it, wouldn't we?
This is not to say i don't like these programmes, or having had this moral enlightenment, i want them to change.... i don't, I'm as selfish as the next man. It is, however, startling to think of the extent to which our culture conditions our appetites, in all senses.
The diversity of cookery programmes is somewhat overwhelming. For the laid back approach one can enjoy Jamie Oliver, if you like a sense of competition with your food, go with Masterchef, if you like soft pornography served with your chips, i recommend Nigella Lawson and if you like Top Gear, you're bound to like Gordon Ramsey (And Nigella).
My particular favorite, not listed above, is when food is mashed mercilessly into science until they vaguely see eye to eye. The culmination of such a process is Heston Blumenthal and his take on food. His approach to food is one that can only be described as obscene, it is as if willy wonka (wasn't clinically insane) and had been unleashed on to the entire culinary world. His last and current series' have focused laying down a different themed feast (first the ages of history and now fairy tales), each week, to a handful of low A to high B list celebrities with invariable success. He has explored from flying pies to savory testicle sweets, from recreating Alice in wonderland's multi flavoured concoction, to jelly with dildos in - Nigellas next step i feel. His work is simply awe-inspiring and the programme gripping, if you don't like food, marvelling at his command on science should suffice.
It was during the last installment, however, when the sheer scale of our excess hit me. I wasn't shocked, but i had never confronted the thought directly. It was when Heston went about constructing a house out of confectionery and cake, a house so substantial that its walls needed structural reinforcement bars (in this case pieces of rock) and welding to build, that i realised that perhaps, in the name of entertainment, this might not be the 'right' thing to be doing. Just imagine if the programme, at this point, was played on a projector to an African village. The people wouldn't understand for they cannot make houses and nor can they find food. Here Heston combines both in the name of excess, but with no intention to live in it or have it wholly consumed. The African people's disbelief might just be enough to make them completely malfunction; to make their bowels just release their contents, their stomachs tighten and vomit, and their eyes be blown from off their faces.
The point is that the western world, through no fault of our own (in fact because of our intuition, intelligence and a hospitable climate), have so much food that we can afford to take the piss. We can afford to build houses with our food, to cook a michlan style course everyday as 'practises' in preparation for Fridays all-in-one final, to form competitions in which the prize is not to consume your lavish creation, but a sum of money with which to splash about on more food cooked by someone else, because we have the resources and we have the viewing demand that implicitly implies to us that 'this must be right'... if it wasn't, we would all stop watching it, wouldn't we?
This is not to say i don't like these programmes, or having had this moral enlightenment, i want them to change.... i don't, I'm as selfish as the next man. It is, however, startling to think of the extent to which our culture conditions our appetites, in all senses.
Next to Sophie Dahl, Nigella may as well wear a burqa...
ReplyDeletei thought it was interesting that u said "viewing demand that implicitly implies to us that 'this must be right'... if it wasn't, we would all stop watching it," i do think that greed is slowly becoming a social norm, but that maybe it is a set of shared values among a certain generation or group of generations alone, because i cant imagine my gran watching the programme having been someone who experienced the rationing of WWII first hand and not being absolutely horrified! That must represent some significant cultural change for the worse?
ReplyDeleteAlso on a smaller than the house made of food, I wonder if uve seen that “edible gold leaf” I mean surely there comes a point were a chef must think: whilst this may make my dish look slightly better it will emphasize my own selfishness and also western selfishness” and as far as Im concerned that in itself surely retracts more from the dish more than the added beauty of the gold.
But yeah some interesting points rob, enjoyed the read ….(nigella = porn + food!!! Mmmmm she gives me an appetite :) wat cud be better??)