Journal Article Analysis

 The journal article I chose was a book review by Jenifer Dutch from Pennsylvania State University. The book review is based on the book Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking shows by Kathleen Collins. The journal article focuses on TV cooking shows and how it has become a part of American culture throughout history. Dutch stated that Collins discusses the origin of cooking related programs such as advice-based radio shows to the modern day entertainment of such programs including TV cooking shows. According to Dutch, Collins illustrates how and why cooking related programs have changed over the past sixty years as well as capturing important moments of history that have helped illustrate the idea that such programs have been shaped by American Culture (Dutch, 2012, pg. 1-3).

Dutch also describes how Collins does an excellent job discussing how popular hosts and the personalities of celebrities such as Martha Stewart are the factors that have driven the shift from instruction to entertainment in TV cooking programs. Collins says that “cooking on television has survived because it has adapted to changes in the environment, it is the ability to constantly change into new varieties that make television cooking shows a unique social barometer.” Dutch’s overall perception of the book was that cooking shows are still very much alive and are becoming more popular. Dutch gave a great example with the ABC network, ABC ended the soap opera All My Children which they had decades of dedicated viewers, for the cooking TV show The Chew highlighting the network’s confidence in the ability of food-related programming to get high ratings and lure in advertisers (Collins, 2012, pg. 2).

I have never personally read this book but Jenifer Dutch did a great job reviewing the book so much that I am going to read it in the near future. Cooking shows have fascinated me for a long time; it’s what I enjoy watching late at night when nothing else is on. Dutch explained Collins main points very well and gave me a good insight on what the book is about and the message Collins is trying to get across which is that TV cooking shows have come a long way and adjusted to American Culture becoming very popular amongst society.

I completely agree with Dutch’s main points that Collins focused on in her book. I am not old enough to know too much about the advice based radio shows but I have noticed the transition from instruction to entertainment in TV cooking shows. Growing up as a kid my mom loved watching TV cooking shows in which they weren’t as entertaining as they are today they were more instructional based. Today TV cooking shows appear on a variety of networks and are way more entertaining. Now they are cooking shows that are completions such as Iron Chef and Cake Boss in which can be very entertaining. Also some chefs and hosts from these cooking shows have become very popular amongst society such as Julia Child, Rachael Ray, Joyce Chen, LeDeva Davis, Jeff Smith, and Martha Stewart.

This article is not of great importance but if TV cooking shows interest you it may be important to you or other individuals that have interest in this topic. I believe Dutch did an excellent job at summarizing and critiquing Collins book highlighting important topics and displaying the role of TV cooking shows in American Culture. I found this article to be intriguing and learned a few things from it, for example I didn’t realize that cooking related programs have been around for sixty plus years. I also think it’s important to acknowledge that cooking shows have been able to survive with the changes of society, cooking shows have been able to adapt to current culture and have mutated from being instructional based to leaning more towards entertainment.  

References

Collins K., Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking Shows. New York, New York. The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2009.

Dutch J., Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking Shows. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Volume 45, Issue 2 (April 2012).