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There isn't a television series or movie that does not have a food scene. Why? Because so much of our lives revolves around food.
The romantic dinner date, a secret meeting in a diner, business lunch, the breakfast in bed, a wedding banquet, or the temper tantrum that flings food on the floor all are how we communicate with food in media. My biggest pet peeve is the old trope of the action movie chase through the restaurant kitchen with equipment being used as hurdles to slow down the bad guys. Who's gonna clean this up???? But this is my second most hated media food clique, the ruined the wedding cake stunt! I am sure that these images have added to my anxiety about delivering my wedding cakes to sites. Before I finish the set-up of your wedding cake, I am a nervous wreck, these projects are treated like my newborn child coming home from the hospital. After I take the pictures of your beauty in place on the table in your decorated room, I am done and exhausted. It's your newborn to protect after that, if your unsupervised child walks face first into the cake, I am not responsible and while I will be saddened by the news of its destruction, I have to be emotionally distant, otherwise I would never allow anyone to cut and serve them.
There are quite a few movies that focus on the life of the chef and therefore food becomes the "invisible" character in the cast, the MacGuffin that propels the story forward. Using the backdrop of a commercial kitchen often springs forth in dramas about the lead characters in the "will they, won't they" scenarios. Cinematic offerings such as Soul Food, 100 Foot Journey, Ratatouille, Eat Pray Love, Tortilla Soup, and many more all have a food center at the story, yet none of them have accurately depicted the life of a chef. Burnt is an attempt at the life of a chef and it is the second time that Bradley Cooper has played a chef in a movie. I have yet to see this depiction and looking forward to talking about this later.
Twenty four hour food television stations have brought about the new term "food porn". YouTube channels are filled with glutenous offerings that are over the top, beastly, recipes of
Viewers are no more likely to cook the foods they have been presented with on the broadcast and this type of television is no longer about food education. It is much more likely that the point of the shows are entertainment rather than education. Growing up, lots of us watched public television, this included the Great Chefs like Julia Child, Jacques Pipan, Justin Wilson, were the trailblazers that taught cuisine and technique to the masses of housewives and young children who were home during the day.
While media exposure of the profession can elevate and educate the public about this life we lead, these days it isn't much to separate its offerings from soap opera themes and game show audiences. Most of the offerings are just another style of reality competion show. Competition shows are abundant in food television. The Supermarket Sweep has birthed everything from Chopped, Master Chef, and Great British Baking Show. Timed challenges of all sorts, build a bridge made of cereal treats and licorice, mystery boxes of foods to challenge the chefs, artistic wedding cake constructions using techniques such as fondant, molding chocolate, chocolate figurines, pulled sugar art, and the like.
There are quite a few movies that focus on the life of the chef and therefore food becomes the "invisible" character in the cast, the MacGuffin that propels the story forward. Using the backdrop of a commercial kitchen often springs forth in dramas about the lead characters in the "will they, won't they" scenarios. Cinematic offerings such as Soul Food, 100 Foot Journey, Ratatouille, Eat Pray Love, Tortilla Soup, and many more all have a food center at the story, yet none of them have accurately depicted the life of a chef. Burnt is an attempt at the life of a chef and it is the second time that Bradley Cooper has played a chef in a movie. I have yet to see this depiction and looking forward to talking about this later.
Twenty four hour food television stations have brought about the new term "food porn". YouTube channels are filled with glutenous offerings that are over the top, beastly, recipes of
Viewers are no more likely to cook the foods they have been presented with on the broadcast and this type of television is no longer about food education. It is much more likely that the point of the shows are entertainment rather than education. Growing up, lots of us watched public television, this included the Great Chefs like Julia Child, Jacques Pipan, Justin Wilson, were the trailblazers that taught cuisine and technique to the masses of housewives and young children who were home during the day.
While media exposure of the profession can elevate and educate the public about this life we lead, these days it isn't much to separate its offerings from soap opera themes and game show audiences. Most of the offerings are just another style of reality competion show. Competition shows are abundant in food television. The Supermarket Sweep has birthed everything from Chopped, Master Chef, and Great British Baking Show. Timed challenges of all sorts, build a bridge made of cereal treats and licorice, mystery boxes of foods to challenge the chefs, artistic wedding cake constructions using techniques such as fondant, molding chocolate, chocolate figurines, pulled sugar art, and the like.
The individual's culinary talent often takes a backseat to the selection of the right personality. Paula Deen, for example, first got her show due to her friendship with a producer of reality television programming. While he was correct that watching her was entertaining, her culinary accumin was spurrius at best. Most viewer have no idea how these sausages are made, no idea what has to go on behind the scenes in order to make a successful show of things. I was once called to test a recipe for a cooking show. Multiple outlets will be used to test a recipe for accuracy and quality. On set, a team of chefs do all the preparation and design so that the stat can come in a make magic on camera.
What a chef does is not what a celebrity chef does. When you become a brand, a bankable product, you begin down a path that takes you away from the production kitchen. You can go from broadcast, to an interview, to a book signing, to a convention, all of which are designed to capitalize upon your cache. Watching television can broaden your understanding of how things work or what type or work a chef does. However, just like watching a medical show doesn't teach you how to be a doctor, watching a cooking show doesn't make you a chef.
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