FOOD PORN ON TV

Why is there an endless procession of programmes about food on the television currently ? It has gone beyond the celebrity chef business and now there are competitive shows such as ‘Masterchef’ which take non-celebrity chefs and subject them to a series of tasks against the clock. It turns cooking into a form of sport, with all the accompanying analysis and attendant nonsense. There is an obsessive almost pornographic attention to details of the ingredients, a fetishisation of the food, an unnatural closeness and interest in the minutiae and appearance of the food being prepared. Then there is the ritual serving to the stern faced judges who pronounce gravely on whether the dishes are good enough and have stimulated their jaded palettes. 

It is all utterly ridiculous and yet is treated so reverentially as if lives were at stake. And it goes on for hours and hours repetitiously, like a never ending loop. It is inane, an hour of watching other people cook.

There really is not a great deal more to say about it as it is so fundamentally stupid and deeply boring. Cooking on TV is well past its sell by date and needs to be permanently binned.