FOODTERTAINMENT
GOING BEYOND THE SUCCESS OF POPULAR SHOWS LIKE MASTERCHEF, FOOD AND COOKING ARE BECOMING KEY INGREDIENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF CULTURAL, MEDIA, AND ARTISTIC CONTENT. FOOD IS BEING SEEN MORE AND MORE AS AN ICONIC AND INFLUENTIAL AREA OF CONTEMPORARY POP CULTURE, WITH ITS VERY OWN STARS, COLLABORATIONS, AND MEDIA… THERE’S AN INCREASINGLY POROUS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CULINARY WORLD AND THAT OF ART, FASHION, BIG BRANDS, AND THE AUDIO-VISUAL.
“We’re living in a golden age of food entertainment. Every month, TV channels and the big names in streaming are releasing new shows and movies about chefs, restaurants, and how people across the globe eat” (Eater magazine September 29th 2017)
The 70th anniversary dinner of photo agency Magnum, held on October 30th 2017, is representative of this fusion. At this meal-cum-performance, chef Ellen Parr transformed the food-based photos by her father, photographer Martin Parr, into real-life edible dishes.
Food culture magazine Fuet highlights the phenomenon in its latest issue: ‘for some time now, food has been seen as the new rock’n’roll; and now some are proclaiming, in a most contemporary way, that food is the new internet.
FOOD ACTIVISM
Is it linked to the growing importance placed on manual, meaning-packed professions (cook, pastry chef, sommelier)? Or to the fact that food is at the heart of today’s concerns(huge controversies around slaughterhouses, recurring food scandals, debates galore about food and health, etc.)?
For whatever reason, food has recently been in the spotlight in political, intellectual, and artistic debates. ‘Is there anything on this planet more political than food?’, asked famous chef, author, and TV host Anthony Bourdain on October 5th in a New York Times talk.
Bourdain has just made a documentary on the problem of food waste. Through ‘Wasted ! The Story of Food Waste ‘ he aims to change the way people shop for, cook, eat, and recycle their food.
Meanwhile, journalist Nora Bouazzouni uses the prism of food not to address environmental concerns, but gender inequality.
The question of sexism and the dining table are explored in her work ‘Faiminisme’ (published late August 2017). Bouazzouni writes that food and feminism are intrinsically linked, addressing questions like ‘What is the relationship between the patriarchy and a steak?’ ‘Where are the female chefs hiding?’, and ‘Is farming a guy-only zone?’.
Sculptor Ry Rocklen is exhibiting ‘Food Group at the Team Gallery in New York City until November 4th 2017 — a collection of 3D-printed miniatures. He has designed hyper-realistic characters dressed up in hot-dogs, ice creams, or tacos — representing his investigation into the mass production and consumption at the heart of capitalist society. His work explores how consumers identify with products, and also aims to offer a defense of the modern-day quest for individuality.
These are convictions shared with food designer Marije Vogelzang, curator of the collaborative exhibition The Future of Food, Looking Back to Now, presented at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. ‘Most people don’t feel as if they are connected to what will happen in the future. They imagine it will be determined by higher powers: government, politicians or corporations,’ explains Vogelzang. ‘But our culinary culture is actively created every day and shaped by people like you and me.’
Artist Chloé Rutzerveld imagines, among other things, the consumer in 2030 being able to create his or her own fully personalized fruit and vegetables. Anyone can create their own ‘recipe’ (vitamin C levels, amount of exposure to sunlight, moisture levels…) and watch their food grow, with all its own characteristics.
Elsewhere, an anthology of food photography as works of art, ‘Feast for the Eye’, was published in June 2017 by Aperture. It highlights the use of food as a way of chronicling the era and contemporary culture. The author, Susan Bright, points out that ‘Food says a lot about our rituals and social celebrations. It signals the way we integrate other cultures into our own, how we invent traditions, and the lifestyles we aspire to’.
FOOD STAR SYSTEM
In the same vein as the traditional areas of pop culture, from fashion to music in cinema, food is developing a system ever more firmly rooted in storytelling, with its stars, success stories, and fans.
‘It-chefs’ are becoming very popular and sought-after personalities. This is true of nomadic gastronomic collective Ghetto Gastro, who organized Thanksgiving dinners for Rick Owensduring fashion week, and for Pigalle at Art Basel Miami. Their interventions attract almost as much media attention as the designers’ shows themselves.
It’s also true of happening New York chef Camille Becerra, with her increasing number of collaborations (think Uniqlo, Pepsi, and Hyatt), who is receiving the type of press coverage usually given to rising star actors.
This food pop culture phenomenon is being fed by the media, with an ever-more cutting edge, on-trend press of indie food magazines that nowadays contain very few actual recipes!
Take, for example, Jarry Mag, with its sub-title of ‘a queer food journal’, which discusses LGBTQ cultures through food and content written by chefs. Cherry Bombe is devoted to women in today’s food world. Meanwhile Put an Egg on it and The Gourmand describe themselves respectively as a literary digest and a cultural journal.
There’s no shortage of cooking shows featuring unexpected casting and an off-beat tone, like ‘Fuck, that’s delicious’, rapper Action Bronson’s food show produced by Vice, or the unlikely pairing of Snoop Dog and the doyenne of food Martha Stewart in ‘Potluck Dinner Party’. The show’s second season begins in October 2017 on VH1, after the success of the first season in late 2016, bringing together guests rarely associated with gastronomy such as 50 Cent, Wiz Khalifa, and Seth Rogen.
Some chefs are even becoming the headline act themselves.
This is evidenced by the sold-out international Noma tours starring founder René Redzepi, everywhere from Japan and Australia to Mexico. Just like a super successful rock group, the reservations for the 6-week pop-up in Tulum sold out within three hours.
Movies about chefs are also making their way from the small screen to the big one. No fewer than three documentary films about chefs have been released in French cinemas over the past six months! In late April, ‘Ants on a Shrimp’ looked at the first residency by Redzepi and his team. Last summer, in ‘The Goddesses of Food’, Vérane Frédiani painted portraits of women who make their presence felt in a massively male-dominated environment. And on October 11th 2017, with ‘La Quête d’Alain Ducasse’, it was time for this French chef to be celebrated on the big screen.
FOOD TECH AS A POPULARITY DRIVER
For the past few years, the boom in Food Tech (i.e. innovations in food using new technologies) has also been a big contributing factor adding dynamism and modernity to this field, especially for Millennials.
A new magazine, Youfood (first edition launched on June 28th 2017), specializes in culinary trends, v2.0. Its pages feature numerous bloggers, instagrammers, and other social media food influencers.
Food Tech brings practical solutions to new consumer needs: from waste reduction (Love food hate waste, Optimiam…), to access to local food ( (Monpotager.com,La Ruche qui dit oui…), or coaching needs (Foodvisor: photo-based nutritional information for your shopping, WeCook: menu ideas from dietitians…).
Some Food Tech players, in-keeping with new consumer habits, also take their inspiration from entertainment models.
Feed Me, for example, is a restaurant search app created in 2017 which fits in with contemporary urban behavior, in an app that adopts a Tinder-style format.
Finally, some players are offering a lifestyle — a total experience in sync with the aspirations and usage habits of their young target audience.
Take Tastemade (2 billion video views across their platforms). The brand was developed around the motto ‘Connect the world through food’, and its definition of taste is expanding into a whole lifestyle. They launched ‘Tastemade Travel’ last July on Instagram, and ‘Tastemade home’ in October 2017. ‘The ‘taste’ is not just a taste for food but a taste for anything you’re passionate about. It could be food, travel or home design. (…) That really capitalizes on that zest for life you have when you think of those memorable moments in your life.’ Oren Katzeff, Head of Programming at Tastemade
And finally, symbols of the growing space occupied by the food sector — XXL venues — are set to opening in the coming months. These huge projects are destinations in their own right, and aim to bring the very best (chefs, producers, restaurants…) together in the same space for a ‘heightened’ culinary experience. Food tourism has never been so inspiring or so tempting for the palate. Anthony Bourdain is due to open a huge market in NYC in 2019, bringing together 100 outlets and stands run by big-name chefs, street food vendors, and local producers. Bourdain Market aims to capture all the excitement of the New York City food scene under one roof. Meanwhile in Bologna, Italy, FICO Eataly World has just opened up. It’s a veritable gastronomy theme park, where visitors can explore all the steps behind what they eat, from planting to plate. Eating has never been such an informative and fun experience!
