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Make Food Sexy Again

Gone are the days of “The Naked Chef,” the sultry and voluptuous Nigella Lawson tempting more than just our sense of taste. Times are different now, but I still think the visual aspects of a cooking show on TV are just as integral to the allure as the food being cooked. I find we’ve lost this. The optics now seem dumbed-down, bland. and ordinary. Is it wrong to appreciate how alluring cooking can be? Regardless of the cook themselves, the way a TV show portrays the product can be beautiful, sultry, sensual. Food is sexy! It’s fun and flirty and is often the nucleus of a great date, a deep conversation, a celebration.   

In a recent episode of her cooking show, the verbose Nigella professes she “wants fire” so she’s adding some chilis to her current concoction, calling another addition her “secret ingredient,” teasing us and leaving us wondering what else she’s got cooking. As she proceeds, she narrates her own actions as she “slips the linguini into the pot” and “uses her fingers to mix the breadcrumbs.” As if we couldn’t take it anymore she declares she finds “frying celestial” and her sauce to possess a “creamy voluptuousness.”  How verbose, how tantalizing, and how brilliant she is to use a vocabulary that draws us in and keeps us wanting more, and describes things as we may think, but possibly be too shy to vocalize.  

I do not want to forget that the audience is watching and they love a visual feast just as much, if not more, than a tasty one. So, when I film my “bite and smiles” I think about the aesthetics: a dress, a big smile, my hair slightly blowing in the breeze. It creates a mood, a place you want to be in. It’s designed to invite you into a world of beauty, a well thought out lifestyle that everyone can achieve.  

I strive to make food sexy again. To not shy away from the beauty of cooking, the textures, the visuals, and looking good while doing it. No, it’s not a requirement, but I enjoy it. I enjoy every aspect of filming a recipe and showing how much richness there is in the beauty of food and the chefs making it. 

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