While I do really enjoy Bourdain's vulgar, misogynistic, macho tone, I found myself wanting a break. He completely degrades women throughout his chronicles and really makes himself out as an ass to most of his readers. I think most of his authority is taken away when he begins to talk about women.
I started thinking about all the other cooking show hosts I love and can watch for hours on end. My favorite at the moment is Nigella Lawson. She turned fifty this year and she is absolutely stunning. Her show is very rarely on the FoodNetwork, and when it does come on it's at odd hours. Over break I've often chosen to stay up until 2am just to see Nigella make an apple tart for thirty minutes.
Apparently, all of Britain loves her—I had no idea until Bourdain mentioned it—and she is admired for her breasts more than her cooking and lovely, simple way of doing things. I found this video of her talking about herself as both an ex-journalist and a cook รก la Jane Kramer and I added a video of her captivating cooking.
And, if you're super interested for whatever reason, here's an interview with her on 60 Minutes. It talks a lot about how she pairs seduction with food to help get more viewers. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/17/60II/main533333.shtml
I think the seduction aspect of food that you bring up here is extremely interesting: it's just another way that we lend food so much power.
ReplyDeleteIn first-year seminar one of the spoken word duos used food innuendos, and it was easy and almost cheap.
Marketing food can be so masterful: look at the way Bich is captivated in Stealing Buddha's Dinner, but it also makes the whole experience commercial, in a sense.
Sticking stars onto the front door makes a person enter. They feel like if they eat those stars, they've earned them too.
It also gets into some of the phoniness that Bourdain references in his vegan rant... Are we eating Kashi because of the label? (They're certainly prettier, right?)