Cooking Shows: How “Real” Should they Be?
by Susan on 04/15/09 at 12:17 pm
Bittman believes cooking shows should be based on reality.
Food writer, critic and blogger Mark Bittman had an interesting column in the Dining & Wine section of April 14’s New York Times, where he complained about today’s on-screen chefs. In TV Cooking vs. Real Cooking, Bittman shares his opinions about the new breed of cooking shows, which he claims are “baffling, intimidating and a big charade.” His beef against the current crop of culinary entertainment is that everything is scripted and precisely planned, which is contrary to how things happen in a typical home kitchen.
He also comments that whenever a TV chef demonstrates a technique in front of the camera, it is deliberately designed to flaunt his or her chopping, dicing or mincing skills (or some other kitchen trick), which is bound to intimidate the average viewer (since few people can master chopping an onion with their eyes closed without whacking off some fingers).
Bittman thinks today’s crop of cooking shows are “charades,” since everything is taped and errors and mistakes are magically eradicated through the miracle of post-production editing. He seems resentful that goofs and gaffs in the studio kitchen are removed, instead of left in as part of the show. “Things overcook, they undercook, they look like something the cat dragged in, they’re over salted, under spiced, soggy when they should be crisp, dry when they should be moist,” he laments. “In restaurants, good restaurants, chefs do these over. On TV, chefs gloss these over. Rarely are you given a sense of what really goes on.”
Sorry Mr. Bittman, but I have to challenge your opinion on this one. TV cooking shows are a combination of instruction and entertainment and I prefer watching successful kitchen escapades. If I want to see overcooked or undercooked food, I can stay home or visit one of my cooking-challenged friends. Even though I think I’m a fairly decent cook, some of my own creations occasionally don’t hit the mark in terms of visual or culinary acceptability. So it’s not necessary to waste my time watching poor results on TV when I can do the same from the comfort of my own home. I personally tune in televised cooking shows to get recipe and meal ideas, learn new techniques and watch how experienced chefs marry ingredients that are not normally part of my kitchen pantry.
Bittman feels the home cook needs encouragement, not befuddlement, and they should get a sense of what actually happens in the kitchen when mistakes occur. I agree, to a point. Celebrity chefs have an obligation to provide tips and pointers along the way, including how to save a recipe when things go wrong. But leaving problem dishes in the final cut of a cooking program undermines the credibility of the chef and is not essential or professional.
“The grand thing about cooking is you can eat your mistakes,” said the great chef, Julia Child. Although the old generation of cooking shows tended to be more realistic than today’s variety, you also have to understand that the technology in the 1970s was primitive and prehistoric by today’s standards, so it was easier to leave disasters in the show, then spend hours editing them out. Today, mistakes disappear within minutes, thanks to the miracle of modern digital editing.
If the author wants to see more realism on cooking shows, then he doesn’t have to look much farther than The Next Food Network Star, where problems, issues and challenges are a part of the competition. He can also tune into Iron Chef America, where a skillfully edited 60-minutes often includes gross mistakes that have the chefs and challengers scrambling, even when only minutes remain to the final buzzer.
Cooking shows are hot right now. As long as there are viewers who watch and advertisers who sponsor, there’s plenty of room for programs that meet everyone’s needs. Sadly, we can’t bring back the pioneers who paved the way, but we can appreciate and value what the current crop of celebrity chefs have to offer. If they are able to inspire just one person to create in the kitchen, then they’ve earned their pay.
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