Should You Imitate Chefs on Television?

Business for celebrity chefs is booming. In the past, great chefs had to rely on the quality of their food to build a reputation.

Unfortunately, restaurant owners don’t immediately pay high wages to someone with a culinary degree.

After struggling to pay off loans from their prestigious culinary schools, many chefs were surprised when they couldn’t land the top position at a restaurant.

I worked with a talented chef who admitted that his first job after graduating involved peeling shrimp for ten hours a day at a seafood restaurant.

He spent over $30,000 on culinary school, but he was only making eight dollars an hour.

He worked at several restaurants before he found a position with a high salary. This experience is not uncommon among aspiring chefs.

If you don’t have the connections to help you land the perfect job, you’ll have to work your way up. However, some people decide to choose a different option to further their culinary career.

Professional and amateur cooks can become celebrity chefs. In the last twenty years, the demand for cooking networks and online videos has exploded. Nearly everyone in the country loves to watch people cook.

I am one of those people, but I have issues with some of the chefs I’ve seen online and on television.

Food Safety

Every state follows the federal code for food safety, but like all federal laws, each state develops its own laws to interpret the code. Chefs on cooking shows and online videos are not always bound by this code.

If they aren’t preparing food for people to consume, they won’t be inspected by the health department. Cooking networks and online videos are entertainment.

They are valuable tools, but they are not the words of God. How often do you see chefs wash their hands on television? Who wants to see that?

A half-hour cooking show can take several hours to film. It takes even longer to edit. Filming an incredible, hand-washing scene is not a top priority.

Sometimes, the chefs wash their hands but not very often.

Celebrity chefs don’t wear gloves when they’re preparing or plating food. Gloves, as well as hair restraints, are not photogenic or pleasing to viewers.

You can cook food with a complete disregard for personal hygiene. You might not make anyone sick, but why take the risk?

Wiping your hands on your apron after handling raw chicken instead of washing your hands is a bad idea, but I’ve seen it occur on television and YouTube.

If you’re cooking for people you care about, wash your hands after handling raw meat or using the bathroom. If you make a huge batch of stew for your extended family to eat the next day, cool it down in an ice bath before placing it in the frig.

I’ll include a more detailed list of food safety rules later, but remember to keep your kitchen clean and frequently wash your hands. Some people worry about the damaging effects of washing their hands too much.

That is an irrational fear disputed by health care professionals and restaurant workers. Unless you have a psychiatric condition that involves scrubbing your hands 300 times a day, you’re unlikely to experience anything other than dry skin.

Hand Waving

I respect most of the famous chefs on television and admire some of the amateur cooks online. I like learning new recipes and techniques, but I don’t like annoying catch-phrases or irritating hand movements.

The nose wave is one of those movements. When you feel the need to wave your hand to your nose, hoping that it will propel the scent of your food at rapid speed to your brain, resist the urge.

If your nose is in perfect working order, the scent of good food(or bad/burnt food) will reach you and your guests. When I see people performing the nose wave on television, I wonder how many nose hairs have accidentally fallen into their masterpieces.

Thank you, chef! Your presentation of this blackened Red Snapper is incredible. I love the risotto, the vegetable curry, and the nose hair garnish.

Your guests will thank you when you don’t include a piece of yourself in their food.

I know that I sound paranoid, but when you’re cooking for guests, hair-free food is the way to go. The importance of food safety is briefly mentioned in the film I’m reviewing tonight:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers ꙳꙳꙳꙳

Philip Kaufman’s 1978 film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, is the best adaptation of the Jack Finney novel. The original 1956 classic, starring Kevin McCarthy as the hero, is a terrific film.

It’s not as creepy as Kaufman’s version, but it’s superior to the awful 1993 and 2007 versions.

Kevin McCarthy makes a brief appearance in the 1978 film as the same character. He runs up to Matthew(Donald Sutherland) and Elizabeth(Brooke Adams) and screams, “They’re coming! They’re coming!”.

McCarthy displays the same hysterical and paranoid demeanor as he did in the first film.

It makes sense that McCarthy is upset. It has taken him 22 years to travel from Santa Mira(the setting of the first film) to San Francisco. People on the street ignore his rants about an alien invasion just as they did near the end of the original.

Alien Invasion

The alien invasion of Body Snatchers doesn’t resemble the invasions portrayed in previous Science Fiction films.

There aren’t any flying saucers or rockets. Green men and poorly-constructed robots don’t dominate the human race. Tiny tubes invade the Earth.

The translucent, obscene-looking tubes come from a distant planet. A bubbling pond of alien funk ejects the tubes into the sky.

The tubes, carried by solar winds, travel to Earth. They rain down on San Francisco and begin the invasion.

San Francisco’s rain allows the alien spores to develop into tiny alien avocados or pods. The pods quickly sprout flowers that resemble the immature fruit of a pomegranate tree.

A group of schoolchildren, led by their teacher, walk around the park and pick the alien flowers. A creepy priest on a swingset, played by Robert Duvall(unbilled), stares at the teacher and the kids.

The camera takes his point of view and swings back and forth as the kids innocently assist in ending the human race.

The central plot revolves around Elizabeth and her fear that her boyfriend Jeffrey has turned into someone else. She works with Matthew for the Department of Health.

Matthew is a health inspector who inspects a shady restaurant at the beginning of the film. He argues with the owner, after pulling a small dark morsel from a bubbling pot, that the capers are not capers. They are rat turds.

The scene is funny, but I’m sure the caper exporters of Italy were not thrilled when Americans refused to eat a product that they associated with rodent excrement.

Mud Bath

When Elizabeth follows her boyfriend around town, she notices that he delivers large packages to strangers. She also sees the change in the city. People in the street seem to know each other, but they’re quiet. They all stare her down when she’s traveling through the city.

Her concerns lead her and Matthew to Dr. David Kibner(Leonard Nimoy). Kibner is a respected psychiatrist and author who tries to convince Elizabeth that her fears are irrational.

Although he’s seen an increase in patients who suspect their loved ones are being replaced, he assures her that her problems are the result of a broken society.

Nimoy portrays Kibner as an intelligent and intense character who doesn’t believe anything the protagonists are saying. The suspense of the film increases with the appearance of the Bellicec Mud Baths.

Jack(Jeff Goldblum) and Nancy(Veronica Cartwright) own the Bellicec Mud Baths. After helping some large men out of their mud baths, Nancy screams when she finds an unformed human body laying on a table.

Her husband, awakened by her screams, runs to help her. They call Matthew to witness their horrible discovery. He points out that the body is the same size and weight as Jack’s. The group concludes that the alien duplicates them when the humans fall asleep.

Matthew and Elizabeth try to leave the city, but they’re frequently chased by the hordes of aliens who have taken over the city. The last half of the movie is like a chaotic, extended chase sequence.

San Francisco’s bleak and chilly weather help establish the hopeless mood of the picture. The decision to move the setting from the fictional Santa Mira to San Francisco was an intelligent one.

This film is dark and scary, and the city plays a large role in maintaining the creepiness. The acting is exceptional, but the atmosphere can get to you.

The mood and music become so dark that Body Snatchers can seem like a real downer. I would give it five stars if I didn’t feel slightly depressed by the end.