I‘m under siege by food porn. Much as I’m loathe to use those words, there’s no other way to describe the videos of oozing cheese and dripping nutella invading my Facebook newsfeed. I love a hunk of garlic bread as much as the next student but this, my friends, is a dollop too much of the good stuff. The thought of people hunched over laptops salivating over ‘candy tacos’ keeps me awake at night. This is my invitation to you to join the resistance movement and save your appetite.
You must know the kind of videos I’m talking about. Companies like ‘Proper Tasty’ and ‘Twisted’ have millions of likes on Facebook, supplying their subscribers with a daily fix of melted cheese and unsolicited double cream. Perhaps you’ve already succumbed to their infectiously shareable content. I don’t blame you. The ‘tricolore ice cream cake’ and other innocent-sounding recipes are enough to entice the curious cook. They are also baited traps, luring unsuspecting foodies into witnessing the culinary abomination that is the ‘fajita trifle’ or the ‘nutella lasagna’. Tread with caution.
Buzzfeed has also jumped on the bandwagon, curating lists of monster milkshakes they claim will ‘give you a food boner’. I blame the cult of ‘Man v. Food’ for the rise of food as spectacle. I’ll put my hands up and confess I spent many a babysitting session watching Adam Richman chow down on seven-pound burritos. Having retired from the TV show, Richman has reportedly since turned vegan and lost 60lbs. I suggest it’s a clue that audiences’ morbid fascination with food is far from healthy.
Great food is about taste and texture, flavour combinations and flair. Civilisations the world over are accompanied by good seasoning. A cuisine is a cultural microcosm and, to me, these viral videos are nothing short of culinary barbarism. I like to think our appreciation of food is more than a Pavlovian response to plates of food through an Instagram filter.
Perhaps I’m a conservative of the cookery world. Call me a killjoy if you will. As defendants of ‘Tasty’ videos have pointed out, these videos often use relatively cheap ingredients in their recipes, making them quick and easy to prepare. Perhaps it’s more than just food porn. Maybe it’s injecting a bit of inspiration into the kitchens of those who are less well-off.
There is certainly a class dimension to healthy eating. Middle-class shoppers are quick to judge the diets of lower income households. They fail to realise that their holier-than-thou baskets of organically grown, local produce are a luxury. A healthy diet requires money, access to nutritional information, adequate cooking facilities, and time to prepare meals. Processed foods are often cheaper, higher in calories, and readily accessible. Those factors matter if you’re strapped for cash and lacking in time or energy.
Is that enough to redeem food virals? I think not. If they really cared about low-income households, nutritional information would factor as much as price. And after all, the ‘Tasty’ page describes its content as:
Food that’ll make you close your eyes, lean back, and whisper “yessss.” Snack-sized videos and recipes you’ll want to try.
If you ask me, that’s a company looking to titillate and offend your sense of common culinary decency for advertising profit.
So perhaps you’ll not join me up in arms against the ‘S’mOreo Ice-Box Cake‘. I’ll understand. But keep your guard up, or you could lose the next battle over a midnight snack to a viral video.
