Thursday 7 June 2012

Chef v Food

There's a... I don't know if 'trend' is the right word... rising of a theme of chefs taking on the food industry in some way.

Heston Blumenthal was the Big Chef taking on Little Chef, and more recently he did a Mission Impossible by trying to get large food providers to change their ways.

Arthur Potts Dawson set up The People's Supermarket to set up an alternative to supermarket chains.

Jimmy Doherty takes on the Giant Supermarket, aka Tesco, and tries to get them to change their meat practices to use more high welfare animals (as in animals that have been well cared for, not animals that need government subsidies).

There's a common theme of overcoming bureaucracy and institutional thinking. In some cases more successfully than others. Although I do wonder about the story arising editing and/or producers getting them to make more of a (if you'll excuse me... although you shouldn't) meal of it.

Now, you'll probably note these are English chefs. Moreover, they are all from Channel 4. Do we have the same things happening over here in NZ? Or are there other examples of similar shows? They are quite interesting, and I could stand to watch more.

[END]

3 comments:

Jet Simian said...

Not to mention Jamie's School Dinners (which went political) on both sides of the Atlantic, and Hugh Fernley-Whittingstal taking on the poultry and fishing industries. Hard watching, at times.

Locally... er, does Mike King count?

Jet Simian said...

ooh! I just remembered! The Food Truck. Some episodes are still On Demand from TVNZ, and it's good! A faourite at our place - esteemed local checf takes on traditional NZ takeaway foods in a converted Mr Whippy van. The Indian takeaway one was a revealtion in particular, but he also covered carveries, sushi, breakfast food, etc. In that regard he's not approaching the little man to help him improve his business, but he is in the 'reinventing things to make them cheaper and/or healthier' game. And some of his stuff sounded pretty cool.

Jamas Enright said...

Looking for Hugh's stuff... hard to find!

Will take a look for Food Truck.