Women are “cool”, Gordon Ramsay is “hot”

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“Only women, envisioned as constitutionally and temperamentally ‘cool,’ can manage Shangó’s aché in the heat of the kitchen.”

For some reason, this quote stuck out to me. I couldn’t get it out of my head because all that it makes me think about is Gordon Ramsay. Forgive me.

Gordon Ramsay has got quite the temper and has surely been described as “hot-headed.” When reading, I was thinking about the contrast between the kitchens in the text and the kitchens portrayed on television, and I couldn’t help but think about how the centrality of women's cooking is so different. For reference, one of the winners of MasterChef said that “It’s a really tough industry and not female-friendly” when referring to professional cooking. 

I figured that this blog was the perfect place to add a video of Gordon Ramsay’s temper, but I want to bring in another quote from Perez’s Introduction that made me think of a specific season of MasterChef: “The very physicality of food preparation has militated against its sustained examination. Its dependence on muscle memory and the “secondary” or “animal” senses of touch, smell, and taste complicate any analysis…”


Christine was forced to rely on muscle memory and those senses due to her blindness. For her, the kitchen is also a place for religious experiences, as she tries to reconnect with the spirit of her mother and honor her with each recipe.


Comments

  1. Violet WindhamMarch 11, 2022 at 7:37 AM

    This is so interesting Rissa! I love last quote from the reading that you included in your post. Cooking and food prep might seem simple at first but it really is so complex! Thank you for sharing this post :-)

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