Food and Television

Adam Gopnik on Charlie Rose tonight said that he agreed with the statement, "Food is the new Rock n' Roll." I would argue that actually television is. Not everyone has access to good food, but everyone has a television. I understand that he was saying how he and his friends talk about food in the same way that they used to talk about rock n' roll. But the thing about rock n' roll from that golden era is that it was something that everyone could talk about in any situation. It was something that was a great equalizer. Food on the other hand is what defines exclusivity. Everyone eats, but not everyone is a 'foodie'. and I dare say that not everyone can afford or is privileged enough to understand things like macrobiotic food. I love food. My wife and I are all about making everything from scratch, and we do it mostly out of necessity. We are broke as fuck. And the truth is I do not understand food on the sophisticated level that people like Gopnik do. On the other hand you can talk to anybody on the street about the genius of Steve Carell or Tina Fey. They are rock stars. They get people excited, and have really taken television to a new level. TV is not some thing for rubes, though they can certainly enjoy it. It is a place for creativity and new energy. Food is unfortunately becoming more of a separator. There is a lot of excitement around these new innovations in the world of food, but it is not something that can be blasted across the airwaves for all to have to contemplate and form an opinion on. Nothing can ever take the place of rock and roll, but if we are talking about energy, the foodies are in their own little world, while Tracy Morgan is as American as Elvis.