Trendspotting: Comfort Food and Cooking Shows
March 16, 2007 — -- America seems to be obsessed with cooking shows.
Given the current average weight in our country, it makes sense. Many people are eating their problems away. Parents are starting to put their children on diets. It seems that everyone is looking for the perfect diet.
One week we're told to live on meat and veggies alone -- not to let a carb touch our lips. Basically, a diet of fat -- in my book, not so good in large amounts. Fruit is seen as the enemy.The next week, we're told that this diet is not good for us. That we need to eat five or six small portions of food a day. Is it any wonder we're confused?
But my point is not about America's weight. It's about how we turn to food for comfort. In moderation, what's the big deal? Your dude dumped you, you need a fix of ice cream. But going to the extreme is never a good choice.
As they watch all these chefs do their art, are viewers really writing down recipes? They're probably just picking up the cordless phone that's beside them on the couch and ordering something that the recipe reminds them of. Rachel Ray makes a soufflé, viewer orders an egg and bacon sandwich -- with American cheese. It's no wonder cooking shows abound on television. A new star is made every season.
It's not just cooking shows that provide comfort. It's reality shows in general. Actors, writers and real creative people are passed over for therapists, psychics, children of the famous and wealthy, and washed up stars. Why was "Big Pussy" from "The Sopranos" on "The Biggest Loser"? He's genius, and was on the most popular show on television.
I joked to a Catholic priest who I know that everything has been covered in reality, so the last vestige would be a show about priests. Don't laugh. It's coming. I even wanted to pitch the idea myself just to stay in step with what shows were being bought. Reality shows are cheap to make. In the scheme of things, cooking shows are hardly the culprit. To criticize the grand dame of cooking shows, Julia Child, would be more blasphemous than doing the priest show.
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