jljacobi

(2012-04-30 02:54:53)

A Show with Heart

I don't really know exactly what it is about this show, but it speaksto me. The best things humans do are a result of cooperative effort andthe contestants and judges on this show seem to understand thisinnately. It's all about the food and making it what should be.Unlike the American version which tries to be "edgy" andconfrontational, you can sense a genuine love of food as well ascamaraderie in this version. There's not a mean spirit in sight. It'salso a joy to watch the cooks mature as the weeks and challenges go by.In short, it has heart, love and soul. If you want combat, watch UFC,if you want a show about the love of food, watch this.

tedg

(2012-04-29 07:44:26)

The Monk's Government

The basic idea here is that the fundamental story in life is as acontest. Everything is a competition, and every competition has asingle winner. The intrigue in observing such a story is the level ofcharacter brought to the context. We are supposed to glorify the effortif we judge it worthy, comforting 'good losers' as they affirm thehonor of having competed.With this notion, you can bring the idea of competition to the basicsof life. So it was no surprise to me on a visit to Australian TeeVee todiscover a contest brought to one of the most basic gifts in life: theability to enhance the human encounter by preparing food. Yes, I knowthere is a distance when the process is industrialized, where the chefis a paid craftsman producing for anonymous eaters in another room. Buteven then, the values are to serve the experience of the peopleconsciously gathering to share one of the three most intimateencounters we have.What we have is a setup that shoehorns cooking into a competition. Iunderstand these shows are popular worldwide, so that fundamental storyof life a contest trumps all. We have exotic locations and challenges.We have a self-important 'food critic,' carrying an obnoxious, superiorattitude as if we could really trust him. His authority is shored up byreal celebrated Australian chefs who are fine with the additionalcelebration and the role as winners in a higher level contest. The oneI saw is someone whose food I have eaten.This comment is on season three, episodes 11 and 12. In the first ofthese, contestants are flown to New York's Harlem to compete in cooking'soul food.' For international readers who don't know, the role thisfood plays is identical to food in any other ethnic community; it bindstribes with the only metric being how 'genuine' it is. It has to beprepared by black Americans using cheap, usually unhealthy,ingredients. Intuition and tradition are supposed to guide the cook,removing this food from any notion in a fine chef's world. In the sameway that it is 'genuinely black' to rely on folk wisdom instead of acollege eduction, cooking soul food is something like teaching an elitephysicist to dance. A soul food restaurant is supposed to simply be awise old woman's kitchen.So that show was weird, especially our bumpfy judge sitting amongst thenow dead wise old woman's family, judging the food.But that was tame stuff compared to the show that followed. Thecompetitors were to present meals to the Dalai Lama for his judgment!The disconnect here is amazing, and I spent a whole day wondering whatthis meant for the fabric of the universe. The tulku had recently cededhis political role to the thugs in Beijing, signalling the end of theonly spiritual government left. He also had made some — to me —disturbing pronouncements on torture, human rights and his ownanticipated future incarnation. Perhaps he had lost his mantra. Perhapsthose of us who are not serious practitioners but who understand hisworld would not even have what he represents any more. Was he reallycommitted to ending the dreams of a striving soul based on the relativelack of pleasure that soul could deliver on demand?As it turns out, his presence so completely overwhelmed the trivialconcept of the show that this was never an issue. He peacefully saidthat he was a simple monk, and all such monks were to be thankful forwhat was placed before him. He blessed the contestants and left.Apparently he was in Melbourne for some meeting of religious leaders,so some of them were his 'guests' at the table, with no compunctionabout being judges. Their role in society is as sanctimonious judgesand there was no problem satisfying the complex ordering: two best (onesuperior), two 'safe' and three 'at risk' one of whom wouldsubsequently be ruled unworthy. However, one of those had a propertyinherited (I think) from Dungeons and Dragons: elective one-timeimmunity in battle. Will she use it?The whole thing is disturbing. But I can see the appeal. The producersare happy for the main judge to be a man we despise, and they spendinordinate time presenting the innate goodness of the contestants, whowe are reminded are 'just like us.' Without much experience in sorting out which is the least damagingwaste of time on TeeVee, I can report (as sanctimonious judge myself)that this was interesting if seen as a contest for finding the rightform of contest. I am lucky to have seen how a great soul walkedthrough this. Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.