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Do today's TV chefs have to be sex symbols too? Do today's TV chefs have to be sex symbols too?
(6 months later)
Lucy Cavendish, writer and a former editor of Observer Food MonthlyLucy Cavendish, writer and a former editor of Observer Food Monthly
I remember making bread – and, yes, I do mean bread before any of you out there assume this is a euphemism – with TV chef Paul Hollywood just before the first series of the phenomenon that is The Great British Bake Off came to our screens. I was at Mary Berry's house (to interview her and him) and the first time I saw Hollywood (what a name!) he was emerging from his car and all I could think about was how attractive he was. It seemed obvious to me from the outset that he was heading for TV stardom. Handsome, well-groomed, authoritative and yet somehow reassuringly manly; he might have a trimmed beard, but he has that silver fox thing going on. I was in no doubt then that he'd be a success. Now he has his own series, Bread, and has become the toast of the nation. He has female fans wilting with desire for him, his own "exclusive" photoshoot with the Radio Times and is feted by the Daily Mail. Could he have achieved this success without the sexiness he exudes? I think these days it is impossible. Chefs now need to be more than good cooks. They have to excite. They need to lick their fingers à la Nigella, or knead bread with their big manly hands.I remember making bread – and, yes, I do mean bread before any of you out there assume this is a euphemism – with TV chef Paul Hollywood just before the first series of the phenomenon that is The Great British Bake Off came to our screens. I was at Mary Berry's house (to interview her and him) and the first time I saw Hollywood (what a name!) he was emerging from his car and all I could think about was how attractive he was. It seemed obvious to me from the outset that he was heading for TV stardom. Handsome, well-groomed, authoritative and yet somehow reassuringly manly; he might have a trimmed beard, but he has that silver fox thing going on. I was in no doubt then that he'd be a success. Now he has his own series, Bread, and has become the toast of the nation. He has female fans wilting with desire for him, his own "exclusive" photoshoot with the Radio Times and is feted by the Daily Mail. Could he have achieved this success without the sexiness he exudes? I think these days it is impossible. Chefs now need to be more than good cooks. They have to excite. They need to lick their fingers à la Nigella, or knead bread with their big manly hands.
William Skidelsky, writer and author of Gourmet London William Skidelsky, writer and author of Gourmet London
Alas, Britain's favourite baker has never had quite that effect on me. However, I can see what it is about him that gets people hot under the collar: as you say, that no-nonsense way with a ball of dough, the sense of manly capability he exudes. But the key word here is, I think, capability. It's mainly because Hollywood is so evidently good at what he does that people find him sexy. Skill is attractive. This is important. It's not Hollywood's pre-existing sex appeal that has propelled him to the heights of TV stardom. It's the fact that he really knows his way around a loaf of bread. His sexiness is bound up with that – of course it is – but it isn't the most important thing about him, despite what the Daily Mail, Radio Times et al would have us believe.Alas, Britain's favourite baker has never had quite that effect on me. However, I can see what it is about him that gets people hot under the collar: as you say, that no-nonsense way with a ball of dough, the sense of manly capability he exudes. But the key word here is, I think, capability. It's mainly because Hollywood is so evidently good at what he does that people find him sexy. Skill is attractive. This is important. It's not Hollywood's pre-existing sex appeal that has propelled him to the heights of TV stardom. It's the fact that he really knows his way around a loaf of bread. His sexiness is bound up with that – of course it is – but it isn't the most important thing about him, despite what the Daily Mail, Radio Times et al would have us believe.
And in any case, there are plenty of examples of successful TV chefs for whom the epithet "sexy" is all but irrelevant. Hollywood's co-presenter on The Great British Bake Off, Mary Berry, for example: a handsome woman, certainly, but by no means a sex symbol. Nigel Slater's TV programmes have proved tremendously popular recently: again, what did this have to do with sex? TV is a medium that has always favoured the good-looking, but in fact, I find it rather cheering that, when it comes to food, there has always been space for odd-looking specimens (the Hairy Bikers, Two Fat Ladies, even Gordon Ramsay) as well as the self-evidently fetching.And in any case, there are plenty of examples of successful TV chefs for whom the epithet "sexy" is all but irrelevant. Hollywood's co-presenter on The Great British Bake Off, Mary Berry, for example: a handsome woman, certainly, but by no means a sex symbol. Nigel Slater's TV programmes have proved tremendously popular recently: again, what did this have to do with sex? TV is a medium that has always favoured the good-looking, but in fact, I find it rather cheering that, when it comes to food, there has always been space for odd-looking specimens (the Hairy Bikers, Two Fat Ladies, even Gordon Ramsay) as well as the self-evidently fetching.
LC: I agree that there has to be an element of capability around these TV chefs. Sophie Dahl's cooking show never really took off, despite her beauty. A person has to know what they are doing; it's insulting otherwise. Hollywood comes from a long line of bakers; his father was a baker and he is a baker and that in itself is very attractive. Hollywood is the whole package. Berry gets away with it because, at her age, it would be downright weird if she was a sex symbol. She is the nation's lovely baking grandmother. But the truth is, if a baker had come on to television without the sex appeal of Hollywood he would not have made it. In fact, he would not have been allowed through the door. We seem to want something different from our TV chefs now – not just cooking prowess but a sense of something unthreateningly sexy, something we can, en masse, have a bonding sort of a crush on.LC: I agree that there has to be an element of capability around these TV chefs. Sophie Dahl's cooking show never really took off, despite her beauty. A person has to know what they are doing; it's insulting otherwise. Hollywood comes from a long line of bakers; his father was a baker and he is a baker and that in itself is very attractive. Hollywood is the whole package. Berry gets away with it because, at her age, it would be downright weird if she was a sex symbol. She is the nation's lovely baking grandmother. But the truth is, if a baker had come on to television without the sex appeal of Hollywood he would not have made it. In fact, he would not have been allowed through the door. We seem to want something different from our TV chefs now – not just cooking prowess but a sense of something unthreateningly sexy, something we can, en masse, have a bonding sort of a crush on.
WS: I think you're in danger of confusing telegenic – which anyone who wants to make it on TV obviously has to be – with being a sex symbol. Sex appeal is an incredibly individual thing, yet you talk of Hollywood as if the whole of Britain were in perfect agreement that he is unbelievably hot. Aren't you taking at face value what is, in fact, a bit of a media cliche? There are just so many obvious counter-examples. Masterchef has been the most successful TV food show of recent times, and, again, sexiness barely comes into it. I've never heard John Torode or Gregg Wallace described as sex symbols (though Michel Roux Jr is, I'll admit, arguably a different matter). I think the larger problem that this debate touches upon isn't the fact that you have to be fair of face to get through the door, but rather that, in our country's discourse about food, we have an incurable desire to link food and sex at every available opportunity. It's as if we can't just let food be food. The sexification of Paul Hollywood is merely the latest example of this tendency.WS: I think you're in danger of confusing telegenic – which anyone who wants to make it on TV obviously has to be – with being a sex symbol. Sex appeal is an incredibly individual thing, yet you talk of Hollywood as if the whole of Britain were in perfect agreement that he is unbelievably hot. Aren't you taking at face value what is, in fact, a bit of a media cliche? There are just so many obvious counter-examples. Masterchef has been the most successful TV food show of recent times, and, again, sexiness barely comes into it. I've never heard John Torode or Gregg Wallace described as sex symbols (though Michel Roux Jr is, I'll admit, arguably a different matter). I think the larger problem that this debate touches upon isn't the fact that you have to be fair of face to get through the door, but rather that, in our country's discourse about food, we have an incurable desire to link food and sex at every available opportunity. It's as if we can't just let food be food. The sexification of Paul Hollywood is merely the latest example of this tendency.
LC: Aha – this is where we disagree. Food and sex are inextricably linked due to the fact that both are supposed to satisfy us. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. There is nothing more unsexy than seeing someone of a super-skinny size picking their way fussily through a tiny bowl of salad, nothing more sexy than someone cooking a sumptuous, rich and delicious meal for their lover and them both enjoying eating it in an abandoned, sod-the-calories fashion. That's all about sex. And food represents more than sex. It is also a gift, an offering, a way to woo people, a way to make peace. The thing about Wallace and Torode (both of whom are perfectly good-looking) is that they are not cooking on television – they are judging. We never see them get their hands dirty, so to speak. Food is never just food. I never serve a plate of just food – there's always another message going on even if it's as simple as "please eat something nutritious, you're looking a bit peaky" – ie maternal food. Hollywood's appeal is way beyond what he actually does. Think about what bread means – it's a staple food, rich in history and Hollywood knows all about that. It's that knowledge that makes him sexy and not just another flash in the pan.LC: Aha – this is where we disagree. Food and sex are inextricably linked due to the fact that both are supposed to satisfy us. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. There is nothing more unsexy than seeing someone of a super-skinny size picking their way fussily through a tiny bowl of salad, nothing more sexy than someone cooking a sumptuous, rich and delicious meal for their lover and them both enjoying eating it in an abandoned, sod-the-calories fashion. That's all about sex. And food represents more than sex. It is also a gift, an offering, a way to woo people, a way to make peace. The thing about Wallace and Torode (both of whom are perfectly good-looking) is that they are not cooking on television – they are judging. We never see them get their hands dirty, so to speak. Food is never just food. I never serve a plate of just food – there's always another message going on even if it's as simple as "please eat something nutritious, you're looking a bit peaky" – ie maternal food. Hollywood's appeal is way beyond what he actually does. Think about what bread means – it's a staple food, rich in history and Hollywood knows all about that. It's that knowledge that makes him sexy and not just another flash in the pan.
WS: Well, you've swatted away most of the examples I've offered with one deft flick of your silicone-coated spatula. So I'll gamely try another: Heston Blumenthal. No doubt you'll tell me that women (and probably lots of men, too) just love the smouldering geekiness he brings to his kitchen/laboratory, but nonetheless I maintain: he is yet another TV cooking success story whose looks have had little/bordering on nothing to do with him getting where he has.WS: Well, you've swatted away most of the examples I've offered with one deft flick of your silicone-coated spatula. So I'll gamely try another: Heston Blumenthal. No doubt you'll tell me that women (and probably lots of men, too) just love the smouldering geekiness he brings to his kitchen/laboratory, but nonetheless I maintain: he is yet another TV cooking success story whose looks have had little/bordering on nothing to do with him getting where he has.
Perhaps, as you suggest, it's this sex-food link that's the nub. You see it everywhere. I don't. I'll admit that I'm even impervious to Nigella: when she tremulously fondles some meringues, or licks chocolate ganache off her finger, I don't see sex so much as some weird variant of camp. So maybe I'm a food-asexual and not really the right person to ask, but, to return to the original question, I still think that it's perfectly – refreshingly – possible to make it in TV cookery without being devastatingly handsome/beautiful, and that this, in itself, is something we should be celebrating.Perhaps, as you suggest, it's this sex-food link that's the nub. You see it everywhere. I don't. I'll admit that I'm even impervious to Nigella: when she tremulously fondles some meringues, or licks chocolate ganache off her finger, I don't see sex so much as some weird variant of camp. So maybe I'm a food-asexual and not really the right person to ask, but, to return to the original question, I still think that it's perfectly – refreshingly – possible to make it in TV cookery without being devastatingly handsome/beautiful, and that this, in itself, is something we should be celebrating.
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