food tv

In the past few years, a lot has been written about food television, and our fascination with it. It really does seem to defy logic that cooking - an everyday activity that most of us have tried our hand at - has filled so many hours of television in the last 15 years or so. Sure, it takes skill to cook well. Most TV chefs have undeniable charisma that makes them easy and enjoyable to watch. But could anyone have predicted our insatiable appetite for shows solely about cooking, say, 20 years ago? I doubt it.

I watch shows about food for lots of reasons. For techniques and advice, definitely. ("Add creamed corn to your scrambled eggs," says Tetsuya. "Salt is the key to great muffins," says Nigella.) But mainly, I watch for the porn factor. This is nothing new - TV critics have identified the parallels between porn and food TV for years. Frederick Kaufman wrote an article for Harper's magazine about the overlapping of the food TV and porn industries, from which I unabashedly stole the name of this blog. It's a great article, and explains the ways food TV has borrowed its "signature" features from porn, wittingly or not. The close-up "money" shots, the idealised scenes where everything looks perfect and beautiful, the gorgeous presenters who delight in tasting their lovingly prepared meals. And like porn, food TV is as much about the viewer as it is the action on the screen. Porn is produced with the explicit knowledge that the viewer will almost always be doing something else while he or she is watching (if you catch my drift) and so is food TV (although, one hopes it's not the same thing). You take something away from food TV - you want to emulate what's being done on the screen, even though you know you probably can't. And there's another parallel - just as the average Joe watching porn will never have three blonde, pneumatic-breasted women in his bed, the average Jamie-watcher will probably never produce a coq au vin that looks, smells and tastes exactly as wonderful as Jamie's does on screen. It's a strange mix of accessibility and exclusivity that makes food TV - and porn - so inherently watchable.

With that in mind, I wanted to share some of my favourite food TV shows, and why I love to watch them.

Nigella Feasts/Nigella Bites
Love, love, love Nigella. I honestly think she's a bit mad, but I love her just the same. I want to look and cook like her, and I really get a kick out of watching her add "just a bit of butter" to everything she cooks.

Heston's Feasts
If Nigella is the security blanket chef, Heston Blumenthal is the Evil Knievel of the cooking world. This program showcases his creativity and brilliance beautifully. Each week, he challenges himself to recreate recipes from a different age - like ancient Roman times or the Victorian era. If you haven't seen it, you must take a look. It's culinary genius, and I guarantee you'll be inspired.

MasterChef Australia
I truly loved MasterChef. I can't wait til it returns on April 19! Stay tuned for my weekly wrap-ups.

Iron Chef
Who hasn't secretly wanted to stay home of a Saturday night to watch this wacky Japanese cooking competition? If Julia Child sired food TV, Iron Chef is certainly the godfather. The completely unnecessary dubbing, the sporting-style commentary and the ever-present Japanese actress who invariably says something like, "Mmm...the texture...is like...silk...on my tongue. It's...intriguing." Behind country music, this could be my guiltiest pleasure.

The Naked Chef
Vintage Jamie! Totally pukka. And he was much cuter back then, yeah?

The Cook and the Chef
Maggie Beer (the cook) and Simon Bryant (the chef) go head-to-head (in the nicest way possible) each week with a different challenge. They disagree in the most charming ways (rather like Margaret and David of At the Movies) which is just great for us, the viewers. See how the chef does it, and how the cook does it...then do it your own way.