Hoity-toity Cuisine April 21, 2008

In our recent readings for class, we have strayed from the greasiness of $2.99 cheeseburgers and Super-Sized French fries and have progressed to venture into the elite affairs of fine-dining cuisine, where a single glass of wine (which, I must add, is only about 2 inches full) will run upward of $20.  What are the differences in such eating fare? What argument is being made for such meals?

Previously, it was suggested that fast food implies laziness for those who consume it, representing a culture who is in love with food, yet puts no real value in it by failing to respect the art of cooking.  People substitute quantity for quality, a dangerous viewpoint when applied to food, particularly fare that boasts 1000 calories in the meat entree alone…Where other cultures revere the concept of a meal as something to be cherished, prepared with great care and the freshest of ingredients, many Americans swallow down whatever luke-warm, grease-soaked, and rubber-tough “burger” they can purchase from the nearest drive-thru several times a week.  True, most families take the time to prepare a home-made feast around the holidays, but is that really all we can amount to?

Well, some may argue they have the alternative to measly eating out-simply put down a little more cash for a meal that passes the ranks of substandard.  But who can afford such a lifestyle? Particularly when “paying a little more” equates to a meal that costs any where from $50 to $250 a person.  Meals that consist of shrunken skyscrapers of unrecognizable food, adorned with decorative art work in the form of drawn-on sauces and dainty garnishes, things that to many constitute as desert but in this case, are intended to “clean the palate,” and so forth…Eating out is not a crime; it can be an alternative for someone who is simply too busy to cook, a welcomed saviour to the person who lacks any culinary talent, and can be a much-enjoyed treat.  But to eat out all the time? Some may label it as wasteful and extravagant-when many in the world go without eating for days on end, how can one excuse the restaurant who inevitably throws out loads of food at night’s end, and even more so, excuse the customer who can spend a few hundred to a few grand on a solitary meal.  I recently looked through a 2007 City Restaurant guide, and after checking New York, renowned for its upscale eateries, I discovered restaurants that charged along the lines of $450 a person…much to likes of the article we read about the $4000 meal in Paris for two.  While surely healthier than a triple cheeseburger, and even more so a much classier environment, meals along this caliber have their own pitfalls still in comparison to home-cooking. 

To many, such meals exemplify a flagrant display of excessive wealth-where people don’t even go solely for the decadent cuisine and heightened atmosphere-instead, they go for the prestige and reputation in a world that revolves around showing up your peers in exclusivity.  It all seems to tie back to the same primal concept – that people eat out for every other reason than the food itself; and it is with such notions in mind that Americans tend to steer away from healthy eating lifestyles into a world where food is either a show or an inconvenience, that is nonetheless consumed in frighteningly large quantities while millions around the world starve…

Eating as Entertainment April 7, 2008

Looking at the theme for Unit Three in comparison to Unit Two, Eating as Entertainment vs. The Obesity Epidemic, I feel a few correlations can be made.  Foremost however, I would like to comment on the whole concept of celebrity chefs and the arguments they might be making…with the likes of Emeril and Giada gracing everything from the Food Network to magazine covers, celebrity chefs are more popular today then ever.  They tout their DIY recipes in every avalaible source of media, advertising them as feasible possibilities for the “everyman.”  So to ask a seemingly simple question: Is this message good or bad?  On one hand, famous chefs are promoting “actual food” in respects to the current culture of fast food and processed goods, real meals that quite frequently incorporate food rich in nutrients and therefore valuable to our diets and lifestyles.  On the other hand, they are turning food into a source of entertainment, providing more of an excuse to consume it on numerous (perhaps even too frequent of) occasions and underminding the notion that many of the dishes promoted by chefs are not the most health-conscience.  Once again, like many arguments, it all comes down to perception, and what one does with them.  Following the works of “healthy” chefs and using their recipes at appropriate times, instead of eating without consideration, is key to moderating one’s health and weight if one chooses to follow celebrity chefs.

That’s what it boils down to-do celebrity chefs, in any way, contribute to the “obestity epidemic?”  Is making light of food, something that should be enjoyed, but where the enjoyment is often abused, a wise move?  People tend to assume that chefs have taken nutrition in accordingly when developing and relating recipes, and thus tend to disregard any second thoughts about what it is they are putting into their bodies.  What about the Southern-Cooking Chef, where everything is drenched in butter?  Sure, her meals may look delicious, but everyone knows that a key ingredient to taste is fat.

Some go the route of Tony Bourdain, where it can be argued either way about his effect on eating “right.”  On one side, he eats everything he comes across despite what it will do to his body, but it’s exactly what he consumes sometimes that my turn people off altogether.  However, he continues to trek on, despite his hard-smoking, eat-anything lifestyle…then there’s the lovely Giada, who promotes her Italian cuisine not only through her cooking ability, but her beautiful exterior as well.  Does one even consider the implications behind her cream-covered pasta? 

I am defaming celebrity chefs or the art of food in any way- it helps the worst of cookers to find an outlet where they can have recipes explained step-by-step, instead of opting for fast food and frozen dinners, and it promotes age-old traditions of various cultures who center around food to bring the community closer together.  All that just needs to be factored into the current so-called “health crisis” in order to promote healthy lifestyles which involve moderation and good choices.