"the classic plot in a dom-sub fetish porn film..."
Via marginaliana: Frederick Kaufman on well-caressed peaches and other instances of gastroporn. It will surprise no one that I all but bust a gut when the conversation turned to Iron Chef...
BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS] Let's talk about Iron Chef. Iron Chef, you suggest, is the kind of S&M of The Food Channel.
FREDERICK KAUFMAN: Iron Chef is the classic fetish porn film. Welcome to the Dungeon, with this billowing smoke.
MAN: [JAPANESE INTRO] Iron Chef! [IRON CHEF THEME MUSIC UP AND UNDER]
ALTON BROWN: Making their ascent in the kitchen stadium and beginning a new chapter in the Gourmet Academy's history, the invincible men of culinary skills.
FREDERICK KAUFMAN: And then you have this great dominator character who's in this kind of wild brocaded outfit with the black leather glove. And then comes the strange ingredient from the ceiling. It's squid. It's living squid. And you have the dominators taking this submissive food and transforming it into something beautiful. In other words, the classic plot in a dom-sub fetish porn film is you have a transformation of a character from a meek little thing or an ugly little thing into a gorgeous, beautiful, wrapped-up, zipped-up thing. And here what you have in food is you have this disgusting thing, like living, writhing squid, that's turned into this highly refined and highly mediated squid risotto.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS] Let's talk about Iron Chef. Iron Chef, you suggest, is the kind of S&M of The Food Channel.
FREDERICK KAUFMAN: Iron Chef is the classic fetish porn film. Welcome to the Dungeon, with this billowing smoke.
MAN: [JAPANESE INTRO] Iron Chef! [IRON CHEF THEME MUSIC UP AND UNDER]
ALTON BROWN: Making their ascent in the kitchen stadium and beginning a new chapter in the Gourmet Academy's history, the invincible men of culinary skills.
FREDERICK KAUFMAN: And then you have this great dominator character who's in this kind of wild brocaded outfit with the black leather glove. And then comes the strange ingredient from the ceiling. It's squid. It's living squid. And you have the dominators taking this submissive food and transforming it into something beautiful. In other words, the classic plot in a dom-sub fetish porn film is you have a transformation of a character from a meek little thing or an ugly little thing into a gorgeous, beautiful, wrapped-up, zipped-up thing. And here what you have in food is you have this disgusting thing, like living, writhing squid, that's turned into this highly refined and highly mediated squid risotto.