Must-Hate TV
Irradiated by LabRat
Watching some of the commercials that run during my dwindling supply of favorite shows, I find myself in the curious position of seriously considering watching a show featuring Jamie Oliver.
This is a curious position because I truly loathe Jamie Oliver. I hate his smugness, I hate his accent, something about him makes me want to punch him until his dentistry justifies said accent. I found him merely offputting until I saw his chicken-nugget demonstration, at which point my hatred blossomed into its full fire*. There’s nothing wrong with promoting fresh, real food for children, which is an agenda I agree with, but he manages to do it on a basis of what seems to be primarily shame and disgust, which is no kind of healthy relationship to have with food. It’s also more than a little classist- some people don’t eat Kraft dinner because they don’t know any better, but because they have little time, little money, and it keeps forever on the shelf and provides enough calories to get through the day.
So now, apparently, Jamie Oliver is road-tripping his way through America on BBC America. And I really want to see it, because it will be like the finest, blackest espresso of hate. I don’t know why this should be; most of the time, people and characters I hate make me change the channel. But not this time. I think it would be genuinely entertaining to hate on Oliver for an hour or so a week.
Is this the appeal of reality TV?
*The upshot of the demo is he butchers a chicken carcass, then blends the scrap meat with fillers, breads it, and fries it. Apparently this is disgusting and horrifying because it’s not whole skeletal meat and chicken carcasses are gross. Our grandmothers would have called that responsible use of meat, and a professional chef like Oliver ostensibly is would call a chicken carcass materials for stock, not a gross thing to be thrown away. That’s not responsible food education, that’s teaching kids that only pretty food is good food. The stuff he blends, breads, and fries is perfectly good meat- it’s some of the fillers and preservatives that make commercial chicken nuggets less than ideal.
January 31st, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Something tells me that the vast majority of food nanny-snobs got into the game in order to justify their contempt for the “lower orders”. “Only pretty food is good food” is a spot-on interpretation of that sort of classism.
I haven’t noticed much of that kind of classism in the paleo community. Is that because it isn’t there (paleo types have plenty of effete foodies to hate on), because I’ve been sticking mostly to the crunchy-science-links bloggers rather than the ranty “outreach” bloggers, or because I’m soaking in in-group bias and can’t see what’s clearly in front of me?
January 31st, 2012 at 10:16 pm
It’s because it’s an in-group signal in the paleo community to automatically like traditional forms of food, including the odd bits as Fergus Henderson puts it. That flour and filler would be a no-no, but disdaining carcass and traditional forms of surviving is a big group no-no.
January 31st, 2012 at 11:45 pm
Sorry to derail this comment thread….
So if I read you right, the paleo community risks becoming as classist-snobbish as (say) Mark Bittman if carcass, offal, and &c. turn into hipster affectations (“I liked oxtail before it was cool!”) rather than merely time-tested ways to stretch the meat budget? “Traditional” doesn’t necessarily translate into “accessible” (see also: Ren Faire).
I’m probably overthinking this.
February 1st, 2012 at 12:34 am
‘scuse me, Ma’am?
Who is this Jamie Oliver? I write as someone who hasn’t looked at broadcast TV since about 1985, and hasn’t looked at Cable TV since about 1995, with some exceptions for really good old movies.
Oh, and just fuck “Pop Culture.” I prefer Western Civilization, or Christendom, as we used to call it.
February 1st, 2012 at 12:43 am
P.s. I think I will now cue up some Mozart to sooth my mind, after giving you a piece of it.
February 1st, 2012 at 6:22 am
Meh… I grew up in the South and we weren’t rich… I think I’ve eaten every part of the chicken except the squawk… And was glad to have it…
February 1st, 2012 at 6:45 am
My favorite bit about the chicken nuggets was when he did it in West Virginia. Every kid said they’d eat it.
February 1st, 2012 at 8:22 am
What’s really funny is that the mechanical separation method he talks about isn’t even legal in the US.
February 1st, 2012 at 10:12 am
I really enjoyed his Naked Chef shows, which were playful and fun and showed some really good recipes. But that was all back at the turn of the century, when he was just a young TV cook. His “second coming of Bono” schtick got old fast.
I hope the new show will give our overseas cousins a look at parts of America that don’t see much coverage. I fear it will be just another “Englishman visiting the backwards tribes” shows, like the Brits have been eating up since Victoria’s time.
February 1st, 2012 at 10:30 am
JtG: http://bit.ly/xZJjSh
Phew. That was some rough work. I’d better go hydrate.
February 1st, 2012 at 10:31 am
I’ve been watching it, and he actually gets along quite well with the Wyoming stockmen (goes out camping, shoots a rifle, and gets drunk with the cowboy with a bottle they brought along).
He also goes to New Orleans, and helps catch a gator for cooking (he shoots it with a revolver they hand him). I have actually been enjoying looking at things from his perspective, and have been surprised how well he handles things.
February 1st, 2012 at 2:27 pm
Enjoy the blog, thanks, Dr. Smith
Westwood Dental Group
3190 S. Wadsworth Blvd., Suite 300, Lakewood, CO 80227
(303) 647-6589
February 1st, 2012 at 4:45 pm
I’ve encountered so many elitist snobs who preach the shame and shock culture of ‘you mean you DON’t buy hermetically air-chilled chicken breasts cut by hand from a naturally deceased bird by a certified UN Animal Rights official and/or mute Buddhist nuns!??! YOU MONSTER.’ I’ve also lived in areas where nobody could afford the 100 mile drive to Whole Foods, or even the ‘organic’ and ‘healthy’ options at local supermarkets-and I’ve been one of those myself. I can’t even brush it off with ‘they mean well’ anymore-find an effective, affordable method of making whole grains, free range meat and arugla as affordable as chicken nuggets and Kraft Macaroni or please, go and offer to snort my father’s…um…lower anatomical region that rhymes with ‘saint’.
Having said that I find Jaime Oliver considerably less smug and annoying than he was in his show in the UK ten years ago…he may even be evolving…
February 1st, 2012 at 9:48 pm
I actually enjoyed his first season of Food Revolution (the one in WV) if only for how it showed the ways the local (and federal) government and busy bodies get in the way of having normal foods at school. But I couldn’t make it through more than 2 episodes of the second season. Suddenly all the hyperbole and drama was dialed up to 11 and he did the MSM demo again, but with more bull and more holes.
And yes, it’s funny how the same people who would go on and on about the wastefulness of modern society would equally condemn people for using every usable piece of an animal for food.
February 1st, 2012 at 10:10 pm
Sorry Dr. Smith. You only get one free ad. Email us and we’ll talk rates and see about clearing up those nasty rumors of Westwood Dental’s history of malpractice, thievery, and pedophila from their association with Sumdood. -Mgmt
February 1st, 2012 at 11:31 pm
tmoney:
…would jet halfway around the world and commandeer the resources of hundreds of people to preen in front of TV cameras and wax arrogant and condescending, rather than stay at home and cook for soup kitchens? Yeah.
February 2nd, 2012 at 2:45 am
Hah! At least we in the UK are having a break from the supercilious PC idiot he has become. He used to be OK (steak sarnies as thick as doorsteps, anyone? in one show) but he degraded into an arm of the foodistas trying to enforce ‘healthy eating’ on all and sundry (although his failure with the school kids made him cry - unmissable TV!).
Me, I don’t bother with TV anymore but if forced to watch a cookery program I’d plump for the ‘River Cottage’ series with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. He hunts, shoots and fishes, grows his own, and raids local hedgerows to gather his ingredients (or visits small local producers) and then makes a meal for fifty from it - impressive and even useful! He at least represents a more realistic look at what non-urban British people used to, and still do, eat.
P.S. Am I the only one who had to have a bag of chicken nuggets after watching his stupid demonstration, just on principle? Pass the ketchup!