"Cooked" - a Netflix series with Michael Pollan

[Deryn]

Just found this series (about 50 minutes each), which includes 4 episodes labelled "Fire", "Water", "Air" and "Earth". I thought the first started a bit slowly but it soon got to the 'food' part and I enjoyed most of the rest.

 

It covers a lot of territory in the 4 first season segments - from how the use of fire is what makes humans human to barbeque in the south in "Fire", through using water to braise meats and vegetables (Water), the importance of natural yeasts in breads for our diets (Air) and finally deals with fermentation (Earth) and touches on cuisines around the world in the process, as well as food issues that are affecting our world today - processed foods and 'eating out' all the time being the major ones. But, that is just a real simplification - there is much more so if you have not seen these and have access to them, I think most people here would enjoy them.

 

What kept running through my head though as I was binge watching these programs was that I really wonder at what point, with immigration/migration and the globalization of commerce, etc. escalating, will we lose all our individual identities when it comes to foods and culture. I love that things have advanced to the point that we can find ingredients so we can try to emulate some of the elements that make different cuisines special (from my viewpoint, from my cultural standpoint) and it is wonderful that we have people from all over the world 'televising' from places most of us will never have the opportunity to experience and some who are also writing cookbooks that allow us to peek into the food cultures of many different civilizations/groups - but I worry that 'fusion' will eventually make this world so homogenous that we will not have these wonderful culinary differences after a while. When I see people in India for instance, who used to cook at home, are now ordering KFC by cellphone every day of the week and eating mostly processed foods, I cringe. I almost hope I will not live long enough to see the day we are all 'the same' (with all the same bad habits) but I fear it is coming.

Edited February 27, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[Naftal]

Interesting... I just started reading "Cooked" by Michael Pollan.

[Lindacakes]

I really liked these videos in spite of not really liking Michael Pollan.  They were really done well.  I liked the international footage and the people who were featured.  Very nice to see food video that isn't the food police or the food contests.  Just the food people.