Blog #5: Televised Food

One of my favorite food shows of all time is "Iron Chef". And I don't mean "Iron Chef America", I mean the original. My favorite part of this show is how the chefs have to create a full course meal using one main ingredient in every course. I think it is so challenging to have to pull that off and make it taste good. Not only is it challenging, but the competitors have to be creative and able to think on their feet because there is a limited amount of time that they have to complete their meals.

I think "Iron Chef" is more connected to the art of cooking rather than what many of these new cooking shows focus on talking and kind of cooking.  I feel as though modern cooking shows are all about an image. They place themselves in a kitchen where you could picture yourself and you watch them bake or cook. The hosts don't spend much time explaining how exactly to cook these meals without having to look it up online later. I feel as though they spend too much time painting these pictures in your head of where you could eat this meal, who you could it with, rather than focusing on the food itself. The last complaint I have about modern cooking or food shows are the fact that everything they choose to make feels IMPOSSIBLE for a beginning cook like myself to tackle. We are all aware that many Americans lack cooking skills ever since they made home economics a choice in public schools. I cannot start out cooking by making a ham-stuffed chicken breast with pine nuts. If I feel that it is too challenging, I don't want to waste my time on it.

I feel as though cooking shows need less talk and more cooking. The art of cooking has been lost. Julia Child was fantastic to watch. The older she got, the more I loved to watch her. As a viewer you really felt like you were cooking with her, experiencing what she was doing. Her interpretation of cooking was easy to understand and so much fun to watch. Americans don't appreciate cooking like they used to, so when they throw in a lot of discussion, networks turn it into a talk-food-show. Americans love to feel like they are involved and I think this is a strong strategy for many food channels to focus on to keep their audiences tuned in. I feel as though it would be more successful if they could manage to bring some of the cooking back into their shows.