Michael Pollan on How American Cooking Became a Spectator Sport
August 4th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized
Well the maestro has done it again. Michael Pollan has a lovely screed in last Sunday’s NY Times Magazine called “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch: How American Cooking Became a Spectator Sport, and What We Lost Along the Way.” For anyone perplexed at the massive rise of viewers of the Food Network, and how it can be that jillions of people are more interested in watching cooking than actually doing it, and how this rise has paradoxically coincided with the rise of fast food and the “home-meal replacements” sold at supermarkets, it’s a must read.
Among other gems, Pollan writes:
- We learn things from watching these cooking competitions, but they’re not things about how to cook. There are no recipes to follow; the contests fly by much too fast for viewers to take in any practical tips; and the kind of cooking practiced in prime time is far more spectacular than anything you would ever try at home. No, for anyone hoping to pick up a few dinnertime tips, the implicit message of today’s primetime cooking shows is, “don’t try this at home.”
- So-called fancy food has always served as a form of cultural capital, and cooking programs help you acquire it, now without so much as lifting a spatula. The glamour of food has made it something of a class leveler in America, a fact that many of these shows implicitly celebrate. Television likes nothing better than to serve up elitism to the masses, paradoxical as that might sound.
- The Food Network has helped to transform cooking from something you do into something you watch — into yet another confection of spectacle and celebrity that keeps us pinned to the couch.
- I suspect we’re drawn to the textures and rhythms of kitchen work, too, which seem so much more direct and satisfying than the more abstract and formless tasks most of us perform in our jobs nowadays. The chefs on TV get to put their hands on real stuff, not keyboards and screens but fundamental things like plants and animals and fungi; they get to work with fire and ice and perform feats of alchemy.
- In countries where people still take cooking seriously, they also have more time to devote to it.
- When we let corporations do the cooking, they’re bound to go heavy on sugar, fat, and salt; these are three tastes we’re hardwired to like, which happen to be dirrt cheap to add and do a good job masking the shortcomings of processed food. And if you make special-occasion foods cheap and easy enough to eat every day, we will eat them every day. The time and work involved in cooking, as well as teh delay in gratification built into the process, served as an important check on our appetite.
And as a bonus, here’s a conversation with Pollan on yesterday’s Fresh Air, talking about the article. Check it out!
6 Responses to “Michael Pollan on How American Cooking Became a Spectator Sport”
By
Karena on Aug 4, 2009
What Michael Pollan wrote about wasn’t apparent to me until my local Andronico’s was remodelled and I estimated that the new produce section could fit in my living room. The store is now dominated by a huge deli counter, takeout counters, salad bars, and frozen/prepared foods I didn’t know even existed. I didn’t realize there was demand for frozen chopped chives in a plastic container the size of a box of raisins for $2.39. Or that a person could be so busy in the morning that his only breakfast option lay in a three-pack of frozen, pre-cooked oatmeal (seriously, where is the time savings in that?!).
But even farmers’ markets are not immune from this. The number of prepared food vendors at the Ferry Plaza market is pretty high, and my fishmonger says the less his fish looks like fish (skinned, deboned, cut into tidy 8 oz squares, and wrapped in plastic), the better it sells.
I wonder if cooking is not unlike the other “domestic arts” in that they have gone from essential skills to hobbies. For example, I knit, but only when I have time, so I am glad that my family doesn’t rely on me to clothe them. They might get one sweater a year if they’re lucky.
By
Em on Aug 4, 2009
He was a guest on NPR’s Fresh Air last night and talked about the exact same thing you mentioned here. I’m hopeful that more Americans discover the slow food movement and I’m glad that the president Obama understands the importance.
By Lee-Sean Huang on Aug 5, 2009
I pretty much agree with Michael Pollan most of the time, but I have to say, I have learned a lot from watching the Food Network. I pretty much learned how to cook as a teenager by watching Food Network in the 90’s. Maybe I’m the exception and not the rule though. I’ve noticed that the network has changed a lot, with slicker production, faster cuts, and definitely more testosterone, which is not necessarily a good thing in my opinion. Even if people don’t learn how to cook on FoodTv, they certainly learn how to eat. I certainly would not have come into contact with words like “chiffonade” and “bain marie,” or ingredients like Speck and caul fat if it were not for shows like Top Chef.
By
Stephanie on Aug 6, 2009
A great article. In Defense of Food TV (had to write that) I do enjoy and take some inspiration from some of their shows. SOME. I also cook a lot. But what is up with the advertising on Food network? Could it get more insipid? Despite the title of this article I think Pollan’s main point is simply, we don’t cook enough and we ought to cook more.
I find the media, all media, constantly perpetuating this myth that everything is so stressful. Advertising is especially guilty of this. I hear Billy Mayes voice yelling at me telling me that I don’t have enough time!!! If a person is barraged with a dozen little messages every day telling them to… Get more done! Hurry! then people begin to think that is normal.
Getting good at cooking takes time, since a good cook has to develop their skills. How many times have you spoken to friends who only think of food in-the-moment, when they are hungry? Who have no concept of meal planning? It’s not that they don’t know better (they do) they just don’t make meals a priority. They don’t realize that it’s their body! It’s their life! Health, sanity, everything is wrapped up in these undervalued domestic arts.
P.S. Eric, How many times have you used the term “Declare Victory!” in your blog?
By
Karena, is that the Andronico’s on Irving? They’re ALL doing that. I love your metaphor of cooking-as-knitting. It’s perfect. Btw, I’ll trade you a dinner for a sweater. :^)
By
Every time I hear the phrase caul fat, I get this horrible image in my mind of Mario Batali lifting up his shirt. There, now it’s in your mind, too!
I don’t think Pollan is saying that the testosterone shows are that bad, just that they’re really far removed from home cooking.
Steph, Pollan touched on the FN advertising a bit — it’s so interesting that the virtually all of the ads are from industrial food concerns that implore viewers to simply buy their hydrogenated products. It’s almost as if one gets the message, “Yes, aren’t these food shows FUN? But when you *really* need to feed your family, trust us.”
“Declare victory” — my addled brain prevents me from remembering ANY iteration! Let me search …. only one! Exactly a year ago. You probably remember me saying it in person!