UN Comsumption Food Television and The Ambiguity of Modernity Research Essay

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Journal 10.1177/0196859905275972 The Essence of Communication of Cooking Shows Inquiry Cheri Ketchum The Essence of Cooking Shows: How the Food Network Constructs Consumer Fantasies Television has a history of creating stories that invite viewers to engage in fantasy. But the most commonly analyzed television programs have been fiction. This article examines the nonfiction programming aired on the Food Network to discover the fantasy food consumer worlds it creates through production conventions and narrative. This nonfiction media relies on a similarly fictitious construction of consumer realities in an attempt to build a viewer base beyond the traditional cooking show audience. The network offers the possibility of pleasure through creating the fantasy of an intimate connection to viewers and the promise of satisfaction through consumption. It is argued that the network is an important element in the intricate web of discourses that sustain consumer culture as viewers are told their dreams should be realized through the acquisition and use of particular goods. Keywords: Food Network; television; pleasure; intimacy; consumer culture D uring the last 20 years, media discourses about food have proliferated. UN Comsumption Food Television and The Ambiguity of Modernity Research Essay

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Most lifestyle magazines offer recipes and articles about food. In book publishing, cookbooks lead all other categories (Brost, 2000, p. 1). And for the last decade, an entire television network has devoted itself to food. However, not much academic research has investigated what I call “food media’s” growth and the pleasures it offers. To address some of the gaps in the literature, this essay analyzes the Food Network, a popular cable channel. I argue that though the Food Network’s programs are reality based, it carefully constructs a consumer fantasy world for its viewers. I contend that the network creates a sense of pleasurable intimacy through host performances and the use of careful production conventions. But unlike other media fantasies, on the Food Network, there is explicit advice, in both advertising and programming, about how the viewer can realize the commodity fantasies. In fact, in their travel programs, in particular, they invite the viewers to actually come visit the places and realize the fantasies offered through consumption.

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Journal of Communication Inquiry 29:3 (July 2005): 217-234 DOI: 10.1177/0196859905275972 © 2005 Sage Publications 217 218 Journal of Communication Inquiry This is part of a new move in television to blend content and ads. In fact, one cable channel, AtomTV, plans to produce programming that has advertisements as part of the content (Weaver, 2003). Advertisers are also proposing to create their own programs, where there would be even more product placement and brand identifications. Ford created a program called No Boundaries, which aired on WB and is developing a series that would feature their Thunderbird (C. Brown, 2002). Procter and Gamble, which owns and produces the television soap operas Guiding Light and As the World Turns has used the shows to promote its products. And reality television shows such as American Idol and Survivor offer sponsors opportunities for on-screen product use and other stealth, in-show advertisements.

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The Food Network has not begun airing wholly sponsored programs, but it persistently highlights consumer goods and creates utopian fantasies centered on food. Campbell (1987) argues that the construction of, and engagement with, fantasy worlds were important factors in the evolution of early 18th and 19th century consumer societies and are necessary for its continued sustenance. The Food Network is a good illustration of how fantasy is a dominant part of our cultural space and helps sustain consumer capitalism. The network encourages people to conceptualize their desires in terms of commodities and to see social connections as bonds that are formed through the acquisition and display of goods. Like early Music Television (MTV), where the programming was actually advertising for recording artists, Food Network programs highlight cooks and their associated products and other food commodities. Instead of records, people can buy books and host-endorsed food-related products. More generally, the Food Network is a 24-hr promotional network for food-related lifestyles. At the same time, it offers viewers particular types of pleasure, all of which are linked to consumption. However, this means that serious issues regarding food are neglected. The Food Network, Television, and Pleasure Though communication scholars have written volumes about the potential pleasures derived from viewing fictional (for classic work on this, see Fiske, 1989, and Hermes, 1995) and reality (Friedman, 2002; Murray & Ouellette, 2004) television, outside of news, insufficient attention has been paid to nonfiction television. Genres underanalyzed include talk shows, game shows, and instructional programs (Timberg, 2000). I consider the variety of domesticitythemed makeover programs (e.g., Trading Spaces, What Not to Wear, While You Were Out) and programming regarding food to be part of this “instructional” genre, and this content is becoming increasingly important for television.

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Ultimately, all of these shows are devoted to advising people about how The Essence of Cooking Shows 219 and what to consume. This is especially true of Food Network programs, where people are advised on how to buy, process, and consume food. Although media scholars have neglected writing about nonfiction media devoted to food, media sponsors and producers have demonstrated a consistent interest in creating representations of food. In terms of sponsorship, the food industry is very important for television. Iggers (1996) explains that in television, food sponsors make up 35% of all commercials (p. 103).1 And the restaurant industry alone spent $1.5 billion in 2000, second only to automobile manufacturers (Durocher, 2001). In total, the food industry spent $2.1 billion on television advertising in 2001 (Baron, 2003, p. 25). And food is also an increasingly important segment category for programming. The Food Network was developed with this connection between food and television in mind. The Rise of the Food Network In 1993, Reese Schonfeld, best known as the founding president of the Cable News Network (CNN), was approached by a representative of the Providence Journal Company and asked if he thought a network devoted to food could be profitable. Schonfeld responded yes and that it could work because “food and packaged goods is the largest advertising category. Of the country’s top 100 advertisers, 45 are food-related” (“Leach to Host,” 1993). Schonfeld thought the network could draw audiences in with restaurant reviews, nutritional information, and fitness news—all themes with easily identifiable associated consumer goods.

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One of Schonfeld’s stated goals was to mesh programming and ads so that editorials would look like ads and ads would look like editorials (R. Katz, 1994, p. 51). There would then be a seamless promotion of commodities and the fantasies that supported their use and consumption. The network initially followed early conventions for television cooking shows (e.g., simple productions that featured a single cook providing instruction). But after poor ratings of only .2 to .3 in 1996 to 1997 (Higgens, 2000), the network attempted to produce and acquire innovative food programs and expanded its target audience to include men and people from lower classes by the end of the 1990s. Instead of just focusing on cooking, it increased its programming budget and now focused on “all things food” (McAvoy, 1999). But more importantly, they attempted to build programming around fantasy lifestyles connected to food. Voight (1997) defines lifestyles as a “discourse of the self” that is promoted by marketers and realized through consumption (p. 53). Lifestyles are achieved through one’s adornment, speech, forms of leisure, and eating, but one must be schooled. The network’s new focus on lifestyle programming provided this instruction and enhanced its performance as the new century began. 220 Journal of Communication Inquiry At the time of this writing the network is well regarded and profitable. UN Comsumption Food Television and The Ambiguity of Modernity Research Essay

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In 2003, it received respectable, if moderate, ratings. It had an average of 727,000 viewers during prime time, which was up 20% from the previous year (Hibberd, 2004). Hibberd also explains that the Food Network is ranked in the top five of people’s favorite networks among those 18 and older. Demonstrating the Food Network’s brand popularity, it receives about 8,000 posts on its bulletin boards and 1,500 e-mails every day (Whitney, 2001, p. 14). The Cable TV Ad Bureau (2003) claims that viewers engage in a “converged experience,” where viewers log on to the Web site after shows to download recipes and/or chat with chefs. Rather than selling goods directly to the public on the network (which might be deemed tacky), it directs people to go to its Web site or its recently acquired television shopping network, Shop At Home, to sell goods to people. Throughout its history, the network has attempted to please various sponsors and their notions of what is acceptable discourse about food. A few scholars have analyzed these discourses. Research on the Food Network Adema (2000) argues that the Food Network reflects many Americans’ ambivalences about health, consumption, and the ideal body. The main message she sees is an invitation to the audience to participate in vicarious consumption and the pleasure of watching others cook in a democratic and egalitarian space (p. 113). She claims that egalitarianism is most evident in programs featuring Emeril Lagasse, the network’s main star. Adema explains that he attracts a diverse audience by presenting sophisticated foods in ways that break down social barriers. Emeril made cooking knowledge fun, valid, and available to large numbers of people.

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Adema argues viewers vicariously consume the food by engaging with the network’s fantasies. Taking a more critical approach than Adema (2000), Meister (2000) argues that the Food Network promotes unattainable and unrealistic images of consumer bliss. The network’s utopia is thought to be available to all people through their consumption; however, he believes this is untenable. For Meister, all Food Network programming follows one principle: food is the key to, and a symbol of, living a “good life” (p. 165). He is critical of this for two reasons. First, he explains that the United States thrives by “feeding” off of others in the world. The Food Network systematically avoids this by not addressing how our food production system exploits cheap labor and damages natural resources, here and in developing nations. Second, the channel ignores the health implications of the foods promoted. Meister argues that this information would disrupt the network’s image of an uncomplicated good life. 2 Though these analyses make important points about the Food Network’s programs, neither systematically examines the potential (and often uneven) The Essence of Cooking Shows 221 pleasures and commodity fantasies that are created on the shows.

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For example, Adema (2000) does not explain how, stylistically, the Food Network achieves a sense of the viewer as vicariously being a part of a democratic space, nor the tensions that are evident in promoting elite cuisine to a diverse audience. She also does not address any of the reasons the network might benefit from simply affirming ambivalence about health and the ideal body, and Meister (2000) does not thoroughly acknowledge or examine the pleasures of viewing. Both also do not pay enough attention the network’s production conventions. To address some of these shortcomings, I will offer an aesthetic analysis of some of the programs, paying special attention to the potential rewards of viewing. The Pleasures of Viewing Pleasure was the focus of much attention of 1980s media scholarship. This was in response to critical media theory that was lamenting the manipulation of the “masses.” Rejecting this research for its simplistic understanding of the audience, scholars such as John Fiske (1989) and Ian Ang (1982) analyzed the pleasures people derived from their media use. Fiske (1989) went as far as seeing media use as a form of contestation and empowerment for audiences who selectively used and transformed media toward their own ends. Below I will focus on research that has examined media fantasy, pleasure, and consumer culture.

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Ang (1982) has defined pleasure as “a spontaneous feeling of well-being” (p. 86) and Campbell (1987) has described it as “our favorite reaction to certain types of sensation” (p. 60). Well-being implies contentment and fulfillment, and sensation alludes to a physiological response. One of the reasons commodities are so central, or even “magical,” in capitalist societies, is that they offer promises of both psychic and physiological pleasure. They are thought to stimulate and satiate, and much of the public discourse in our media (both advertising and programming) affirm those beliefs. Ang (1982) believes that in media use, like in other forms of consumption, fantasy is central to attaining pleasure. She contends that this fantasy is not an illusion that can be contrasted to “reality” but is a fundamental aspect of human existence and reality itself (p. 92). Unlike Radway (1991), who maintained that women’s use of romance novels only provided women with the illusion of pleasure, Ang says that fantasy is extremely pleasurable for people’s lived experience. She finds it to be an important aspect of our psychical reality and argues that we should take it seriously as a desire that demands fulfillment. This fantasy element is a central way I will later make sense of the allure of Food Network programming. Though Ang’s (1982) work is important for understanding and acknowledging pleasure, she is not concerned with how fantasies are differentially 222 Journal of Communication Inquiry realized through actions. One of the central aspects of consumption, however, is that fantasies of what a commodity will do for us are imagined. Then we have the chance to consume the item and assess whether the material reality matched up with our dream.

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Many scholars believe that there is always a gap and that we are left with unfulfilled desires. This longing (and a sense of unfulfillment) is one of the central elements of modern consumerism, as we continue to look for the product that will actually come closer to our fantastical imaginations (Jhally, 1987; Kanner & Gomes, 1995). Campbell (1987) insists that an experience itself is not the key to understanding pleasure. Anticipation is central. Through the daydreaming encouraged by early 19th century novels, pleasure was introduced into the normal process of imaginative anticipation of the future (p. 83). This was crucial for both modern subjectivity and capitalism. For Campbell, romantic daydreamers’ embracement of fantasy did not just strengthen desire, but helped make desire itself a pleasurable experience. Although delayed gratification was frustrating for “traditional men,” Campbell contends that “modern men” found it to be a happy hiatus between desire and consummation. Stories that circulate today increasingly feature commodities and are a central way fantasy worlds of consumer pleasure are sustained. For Campbell (1987), what is crucial to understand about modern consumer subjectivity is not the material act of shopping or purchasing, but the “imaginative pleasure-seeking” that results from what he calls “mentalistic hedonism” (p. 89). Symbolism and communication then, and not simply materialism, are the defining features of consumer societies. UN Comsumption Food Television and The Ambiguity of Modernity Research Essay

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The ultimate goal is often to experience in reality what people conjure up in their minds. The Food Network fits nicely into this consumption-oriented world, promising the pleasure of either fantasy or actual sensual delights in both their programs and advertisements. Method From May to September 2002, I watched and videotaped more than 70 hr of the Food Network. During May and June, I recorded a random sample of 2- to 6-hr blocks of day, afternoon, and evening programs 2 times a week and 6-hr blocks during July and August. I taped a handful of supplementary programs during September. Given that the network frequently replays its programs, many of the hours taped were redundant. In addition to this, I immersed myself in the network, watching countless more hours. Notes were taken, and categories of themes were noted with the following questions as my guide: 1. What are the potential rewards of viewing? The Essence of Cooking Shows 2. 3. 4. 223 What production conventions (lighting, color, and types of shots) are used? What are hosts like in terms of appearance, performance, and style? How is the audience addressed? A list of themes was developed from watching the taped content. Then, I watched many more hours of programming to test working ideas about production techniques and the most prominent themes: intimacy, class, gender, ethnicity, and commodities. I will here highlight how the producers of Food Network programs achieve intimacy and what other potential pleasures are offered.

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I will especially be focusing on the network’s star chef, Emeril Lagasse, along with female hosts Sara Moulton and Martha Stewart and new stars including Jamie Oliver, Rachel Ray, and Anthony Bourdain. Analysis The Food Network has both borrowed from the long-standing cooking show genre and built new content around food to offer pleasures to the audience. They rely on four basic categories of food programming that I call traditional domestic instructional cooking; personality-driven domestic cooking shows; food travel programs; and the avant-garde, a new genre of food programming that the network has both acquired and created. This last category demonstrates how the network has been innovative in the food media genre, employing surreal sets, camera angles, and bizarre costuming. Although all programs feature goods as their primary fantasy material, I focus on the differences in the programs because the network’s new style of food programming (e.g., its “new domestic cooking shows” and the production and acquisition of avant-garde programs) has been an important way it has become successful and built new fantasies around food.

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Traditional Domestic Instructional Programs Traditional domestic instructional programs followed most of the conventions established by James Beard and Julia Child. The Food Network offers a variety of these shows including Martha Stewart’s From Martha’s Kitchen (Dean, 2002a, 2002b), Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Meals (Food Network, 2002c), Emeril Lagasse’s Essence of Emeril (K. Katz, 2002a), Sara Moulton’s Sara’s Secrets (Downward, 2002), and Melting Pot (Food Network Television, 2002d), cohosted by a revolving set of chefs who were predominantly female. All kitchens were illuminated in very soft light and painted and decorated in earth tones, with the traditional kitchen color of yellow used most frequently. 30 Minute Meals’ (Food Network, 2002c) host Rachel Ray’s kitchen is illustrative. In her kitchen, the upper segment of the back wall is painted light yel- 224 Journal of Communication Inquiry low, with green tile dividing the wall and the counters. All of her cookware matches the central color scheme, and the colorful prepared food contrasts nicely against these dishes. The vibrant colors could inspire both one’s desire for food and the pleasant décor of a remodeled kitchen, and she invites the viewer into this nice space. Viewers could then steal a glimpse of what it is like to buy the goods necessary to have a beautiful kitchen. And, many com … UN Comsumption Food Television and The Ambiguity of Modernity Research Essay.