Is food porn suitable for TV?

Food shows have always been popular from the Galloping Gourmet to Keith Floyd, from Delia Smith to Jamie Oliver.

It used to be that cooking shows where all about, well, cooking. These days the genre has so many variations it has become a confused space, many seemingly extended TV adverts for the inevitable recipe book to go with the series. The term “food porn” is a brilliant description for some of these shows as there is little substance when it comes to the process of creating the dishes. Most of the programme showing you how you can look good in the kitchen and how you will have a fantastic lifestyle where your friends all turn up at once and coo over how amazing your food is. Some TV chefs are so good at this their friends go to extreme lengths, even creating a music festival in honour of their food idol. Not sure I have the room for that in my garden, but I can’t wait for it to happen once I’ve tried a recipe or two from the series. So which show to watch? Is it the “back to basics” one which tells you that you will only ever need two saucepans, while they stand in a fully kitted out kitchen and continue to cook with a frying pan? Or perhaps you prefer an “advanced” lesson which suggests you obtain liquid nitrogen and deliver it to your guests in a bowl…and you were worried about spilling hot soup! The only thing a lot of these shows have in common is the lack of actual cooking, I mentioned Keith Floyd above as he is one of my all time favourites, and is rightly remembered for his passion, wit and skill. But I loved the speed at which he worked, pulling the camera down and demanding that you look at the food because that is what the show was all about, right? Now it’s all flashy camera angles and fast movements or a short clip of melting cheese or chocolate oozing and dripping into someone’s mouth from above.

Have shows lost there grip on reality? A series devoted to 30 minute meals, fine if you are an experienced chef with everything prepped, rehearsed and with plenty of slick editing, I mean they even manage to fit an ad break in the middle so it must be easy for anyone to make three courses in half an hour? I beg to differ. Or what about the joys of living the English dream on a farm producing your own meat and veg, and how preciously important this is…well it’s alright for some. I won’t even go in to the various worthy causes these chefs compete to champion, as they assure us they will make a huge difference to the lives of the common people. I’m sorry but I haven’t seen any real cultural change or benefit from these campaigns, but I do understand their books sales have gone up. Anyone who has an interest in producing great food needs two things – inspiration and recipes. Inspiration gets you to think about new ways of cooking and the recipes give you a grounding to add this new style to your portfolio. But surely for the home cook there should be some basis in the real world? If you live in theOuter Hebrides I’m sure getting hold of fresh galangal and flying fish eggs is going to prove a little tricky. Don’t get me wrong there are good food shows on TV and I watch many of them. It’s just these entertainment based lifestyle shows pulling people in under the guise of being all about cooking that leave a bitter taste in my mouth, while I long for a re-run of Floyd on Food. Which is your favourite food show past or present, and what is it about the show that does it for you?