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

By -

“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 :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amidst the Pandemic

By -
Image
I think having the opportunity to take Smells and Bells and then experiencing a worldwide pandemic came with good timing. Oftentimes, we’re so rushed to get from one one place to another that we miss out on what happens around us. We’re so accustomed to the lifestyle of being busy that it has become the norm for many of us. However, the pandemic has forced us to slow down. We’re now appreciating everything that we had previously taken for granted and noticing things in our surroundings that we have never noticed before.  Take this quarantining/social distancing as an opportunity to be more aware of what you experience through the senses. I don’t think my senses have necessarily heightened over the past 5 weeks, but I am actively making the choice to pay more attention to what I see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. I like going on nature/mindfulness walks and basking in the sunshine out in my backyard. This morning, I could hear a faint noise from the wind, hear the birds chirping, f
Read more

Food in the Afterlife

By -
Image
In Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions , Perez talks of Ashabi and her grandchildren providing food offerings to their ancestors. This immediately reminded me of the practice of food sacrifice in early China. I've taken Chinese language classes for about 7 years now and in one of the lessons, we learned about food as well as the history of food in Chinese culture. Ashabi and her grandchildren would give food offerings to their ancestors every day. This included nine beverages (coffee, liquor, and water mixed with sugar and molasses) and nine square pieces of coconut topped with red palm oil and guinea pepper. The offerings would also include whatever food was dropped on the ground. In their house, food dropping on the floor signified more than it would in common American households. It signified that the ancestors wanted that food and had willingly made it fall to the floor. They also used dishware that had been chipped which was
Read more