Food History

I should learn.

Every time I promise you things, life gets in the way. Last night I couldn’t get onto the Food History site to post and today I marketed in the morning and have slept since. If I don’t make promises to blog on a particular subject and a particular day, then all is well, isn’t it? It’s only when I say something that the universe steps in and says “No, not gonna do that.”

So, The Next Food Network Star. What did I see in it that got me so excited?

First of all, it’s a fairly typical reality show in a bunch of ways. Each of the contestants fits at least one of our assumptions of what an aspiring star ought to be. There is the young and sensitive lad who knows not of the Big World and cried when he fails. There’s the chirpy battler with scads of personality. There’s the comedienne who tells herself so often she has to be funny that she dries up when push comes to shove. There’s the man who calls someone else a diva and puts her down then finds himself paired with her for an exercise. All reality shows have this feeling to the first episode. We only find out who the contestants actually are as the season progresses, and sometimes not even then.

This means I’m interested in the contestants that were selected, but not fascinated. I was fascinated by the number of them who, given a half hour to cook something, chose comfort food that was hard to cook in a hurry. I was enthralled by the fact that all those cooking qualifications don’t actually engender depth of food knowledge.

I was intrigued by the TV food expert who explained the essence of TV food in his first sentence. He pointed out the obvious: we can taste or smell or touch the food through the TV screen, yet food is something that appeals to all senses, not just sight. He instructed the finalists to remember that they had to do something special in terms of communicating, given that screen between viewers and the food they talk about.

One of my students commented that you can’t taste the food from a recipe. That’s only true for some people. At least one of my friends and I look at each other when we encounter ingredients. We combine them in our mind and yes, we can taste them ahead of time. What surprised me was that my student was right in terms of the cooking show: we couldn’t taste what they were doing. Somehow, instead of creating a bond between us and food, they put up barriers.

I wish that I could see the whole season. I want to learn how those barriers break down as these cooks learn to communicate with their audience. I want to see who fails and why. I want to know if any of them communicate what Jennifer and I do instinctively – taste food by thinking of it. That’s what the successful cooking show host does, after all: they connect us with food and make it special and worth pursuing.

Mostly, I want to know if the guy from Iron Chef will be subtitled the whole season and if he says any more condemning things about dishes. He’s obviously the no-holds-barred judge and he has a very good way with a one-liner.

From a food history point of view, this program would be very revealing. It’s worth watching to see if using the spotting and development of celebrity through competition leads to changes in the way we identify with cooks and see our food. It’s a new juxtaposition of old components. Celebrity chefs (Taillevent – the Middle Ages), celebrity teachers (Francatelli and Soyer – 19th century), celebrity gourmands (Apicius – Ancient Rome) – these have all appeared separately in lots of our pasts. Now, though, they all appear together, in a competition to find an Escoffier. Except it isn’t really a competition to find an Escoffier. It’s a competition to find a TV host for a food show. A kind of mini-Escoffier. Somewhere down the food chain. Popular, but not a world leader.

I so wish that this was being shown in Australia. American Idol for foodies has so much potential for entertainment of the snarky sort and so much inherent possibility for food history analysis.

It starts this week. And yes, I still want to know who left the show that first episode, should any of you happen to see it.