1. The Future of Food TV… is Twitter?

    With new series of Celebrity MasterChef and The Great British Bake Off both starting this week, the BBC expect millions of us will be gleefully following the successes (& failures) of celebrity & amateur chefs. Indeed, it’s hard to watch any TV without being aware of a cookery show of some description. Simon Cowell joins in later this year with cookery competition he hopes will rival MasterChef.  Alexandra Roumbas Goldstein wonders where the proliferation of cookery shows is heading and what armoury the successful TV chef or TV programmer needs to have to win the TV food wars.

    Blog post by Alexandra Roumbas Goldstein for Great British Chefs

    If skill in the kitchen were measured by the amount of time spent glued to food TV, I’d be worth a couple of Michelin stars by now at least. And if the continued commissioning of any format imaginable is any indication, the general public’s obsession with food programming is going nowhere any time soon. It can sometimes be hard to see what’s left to cover, though, with the extraordinary proliferation of shows and channels dedicated to food.

    Even over the last couple of decades, some things really haven’t changed at all.  Rick Stein’s ranty fishfests are almost indistinguishable from the late Keith Floyd’s sloshed travelogues. All that’s changed between Delia’s heyday and that of Nigella and Lorraine is a softer, more sensuous delivery. The era of the shouty chef seems to be – thankfully – abating, though Ramsey’s barking had nothing on the stern, narrowed eyes and ruddy cheeks of Albert Roux anyway.  MasterChef might have injected some more drama and swapped transatlantic Grossman for Antipodean Torode, but the amateur cooking contest is still essentially what it’s always been.

    Gok Wan on Gok Cooks Chinese

    And yet in the UK, at least, it’s very much MasterChef and its ilk that are defining the next stage of food television: a strong emphasis on interaction with the audience. Social media are my everyday business, so perhaps I give them greater emphasis than most, but the massive numbers of food bloggers – many of them right here – suggest that I’m not wrong to do so. Social channels have for some time now been an absolutely essential addition to the genre, and the frantic tweeting hits its height during cooking competitions. It would be unthinkable to sit down to the imminent next series of The Great British Bake Off without having a Twitter hashtag at the ready. I wouldn’t know how to cope with the next season of MasterChef Australia ending if I didn’t know I could follow Gary Mehigan on Twitter – to whom I have an almost unhealthy attachment – and his spoilerific updates.

    Urvashi Roe on Great British Bake Off 

    Great British Chefs might be unrelated to any of this, but with a former GBBO contestant as a regular blogger and comprehensive coverage of the ultimate in professional competitions, Great British Menu, it’s clear that digitally savvy foodies are just as hooked as those of us who watch on in indolent envy as others perfect their pulled pork spice mix. It’s nothing new that the BBC has been pulling in the ‘buzz’ from blogs into its own online coverage. But what makes it even more exciting than just a bunch of us drooling collectively over multiple screens – the bit that really feels like a proper shift in broadcasting - is that the chefs are increasingly in the middle of the conversation too.

    When Johnny Mountain opted to crash out of Great British Menu in spectacular style, his last word was delivered off-screen, through blog posts and tweets. I’ve always been faintly ambivalent about Nigel Slater with his earnest and slightly fractured delivery, until I spotted this brilliantly laconic response to a concerned query. Consider the next closest thing – the Saturday Kitchen style phone-in – and there’s simple no comparison.

    That, of course, is where the other big trend in programming comes in: the campaigner-chef. I can only be grateful for the fact that marketers and producers have resisted the urge to add a social media voting element to contests, but campaigners have found a natural home online. Whether school dinners or fish quotas, grabbing the opportunity to continue hammering home the message after the broadcast is over is only sensible – and, with any luck, successful.

    Food blogger at work in FRAE

    While the remaining formats are mainly falling into a handful of oft-repeated categories (quick food for busy people! Pretty cakes! Look at me visiting this place you’ll never go! Grow everything yourself!), the dominating forces right now are contests and campaigns. When those are the things that most lend themselves to online participation - giving producers access to feedback far more valuable than ratings figures alone, too - is it any wonder that this seems to be the future?

    As far as I’m concerned, long may that continue.

    Blog post by Alexandra Roumbas Goldstein for Great British Chefs

    What do you think?  Do you think we will ever tire of cookery shows on TV? Or will different “two screen” formats make them even more popular? Do you have a favourite TV chef or cookery show?  What is about it that keeps you hooked?