There have been famous chefs for centuries. But it was not until the second half of the twentieth century that the modern celebrity chef business really began to flourish, thanks largely to advances in media such as television which allowed ever-greater numbers of people to tune in. Food Media charts the growth of this enormous entertainment industry, and also how, under the threat of the obesity "epidemic," some of its stars have taken on new authority as social activists, while others continue to provide delicious distractions from a world of potentially unsafe food. The narrative that joins these chapters moves from private to public consumption, and from celebrating food fantasies to fueling anxieties about food realities, with the questionable role of interference in people's everyday food choices gaining ground along the way.Covering celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Rachael Ray, and popular trends like foodies, food porn and fetishism, Food Media describes how the intersections between celebrity culture and food media have come to influence how many people think about feeding themselves and their families - and how often that task is complicated when it need not be.

PrefaceIntroduction: Do You Remember when Chefs just Cooked? Part I: Food Media - A Fantasy Industry1. The New Study of FoodChef Mario Batali, on the Subject of CookingEnter the Foodie Television: The Magic ScreenTo Your HealthLet Me Entertain You2. Foodie Books and Fantasies Communication: 'The object thus made common'A Life Less Ordinary (David, Fisher, Liebling)Drooling Over HistoryA Life More Ordinary (Food Literature)Ignorance as CommodityPart II: The Rise and Rise of Food Television3. The Celebrity (Professional) Chef: Jamie Oliver The Naked Chef@jamie_oliverJamie's KitchenThe Jamie Effect, or The Practice of Everyday Interference4. The Celebrity (Amateur) Chef: Rachael Ray Multi-Millionaire Girl-Next-DoorThe Yum-O® RevolutionFood PornDisordered Eating5. Fetishism and the Imagination: Heston Blumenthal and Nigella LawsonEveryday MythologyIn Search of PerfectionFetishism: 'The definitive mistake of the pre-enlightened mind'The Domestic Goddess Part III: How Not to Think About What to Eat6. Nutritionism, Bad Science and Spectacles of Disordered EatingMorbid FascinationsYou Are What You EatSupersize vs. SuperskinnySuper Skinny Me 7. Obesity: Whose Responsibility Is It Anyway?Fat StoriesThe Obesity PoliceFat TaxesEvidence: What of?Public GoodBibliographyIndex