Jamie Oliver uproar?

[mikelbarnz]

http://entertainment.news.com.au/story/0,1...0-10229,00.html

[Siren]

the uproar is insane if it's directed at him... yell @ the tv station/censors for letting it air if it's a problem..

[jackal10]

I liked his Grace

"For what we are about to recieve may G-d be truely thankful"

I'm sure it was not deliberate, but it seemed apt...

It was one of those moments when you thought "what did he say just then? Did he really say that?"

Edited November 14, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[M.X.Hassett]

I can't beleive people are outraged that he was showing people where our food really comes from. Well yeh I guess I can understand it, plenty of hoople-heads out there. The disconect people have with food is getting a littly crazy. Anyone know if Bourdain was chastised for the scene on No R.

[Megan Blocker]

the uproar is insane if it's directed at him... yell @ the tv station/censors for letting it air if it's a problem..

←

If the issue is that the scene was too bloody for some viewers or needed to be preceeded by some sort of "what you are about to see may be graphic..." warning, ok. A little silly, considering the kinds of violence shown on TV on a regular basis (at least, American TV).

I can't beleive people are outraged that he was showing people where our food really comes from. Well yeh I guess I can understand it, plenty of hoople-heads out there. The disconect people have with food is getting a littly crazy. Anyone know if Bourdain was chastised for the scene on No R.

Agreed. If the animal rights groups are only attacking Oliver for showing the slaughter of a lamb, or only for doing it on TV, then they are hypocrites. If they are using the public nature of the act to draw attention to their cause, then fine. They should be quite clear (and, perhaps, were - I don't know) that they take issue with the act itself, not with the fact that Jamie (a celebrity) did it or that it was shown on TV.

If anything, given the uproar it may have created with even meat-eating TV-watchers, you'd think animal rights groups would grab at this as an opportunity to recruit those turned off by the sight of an animal being killed for food.

They won't get me, but they may get some.

Edited November 14, 2005 by Megan Blocker (log)

[pim]

Why the uproar?

Oh, right lambs grow on trees...

how silly of me.

[Megan Blocker]

Why the uproar?

Oh, right lambs grow on trees...

how silly of me.

←

I thought it just magically appeared in my grocer's refrigerator, wrapped in plastic and styrofoam?

[scottie]

"The TV station which aired the program received dozens of complaints, with many viewers concerned children may have been watching."

God forbid children should know where meat comes from. We should allow them to grow up thinking that, as Megan said, it "magically appears" at the grocer's.

Oh wait, that's part of the problem! That's why people allow factory farms and inhumane conditions for livestock- willful ignorance.

I heartily applaud Jamie Oliver's attitude on this point and challenge anyone who eats meat to do the same.

[rose_ayn]

I can't beleive people are outraged that he was showing people where our food really comes from. Well yeh I guess I can understand it, plenty of hoople-heads out there. The disconect people have with food is getting a littly crazy. Anyone know if Bourdain was chastised for the scene on No R.

←

The program, at best should have warned of content prior to it but it certainly isn't Oliver's fault.

In regard to Bourdain's No Reservations segment. You'd better believe there were complaints on the Travel Channel message board. All along the same vein, he should have shown the animal mercy and released it back into the wild where it could reproduce and die a happy death after a long life.

Okay, so maybe I'm venting a little there. But it boils down to the same thing. If you eat meat you have to take responsibility for where it comes from. It's not pretty folks, but it's the food chain.

[MarketStEl]

Why the uproar?

Oh, right lambs grow on trees...

how silly of me.

←

I thought it just magically appeared in my grocer's refrigerator, wrapped in plastic and styrofoam?

←

What scares me is that there are probably people out there who really believe this is the case, or something close to it.

If Jamie Oliver's graphic demonstration creates a new generation of vegetarians, so be it, but I think that it's all too easy these days to imagine that the process by which we produce our food is completely antiseptic and painless. As long as some of our food comes from animals we kill, it won't be.

And as long as animals kill other animals for the same purpose, I wouldn't get all bent out of shape when humans do. I'm sure that the hen is no happier that it's a fox sinking his teeth into her neck rather than a meat cleaver cutting it in two.

[Rebel Rose]

"The TV station which aired the program received dozens of complaints, with many viewers concerned children may have been watching."

City folk, obviously. Country kids aren't content with watching. They want to help.

[Pontormo]

I am reminded of something Karen Resta said recently about the differing world views of people who watch television frequently and those who don't, an observation she reported from a class in Communications.

As someone who does watch a fair amount of television, I find the uproar ironic, too.

In the United States, CSI is one of the most popular shows for reasons that I find disturbing. The show is graphic in its portrayal of gore, if primarily posthumous viscous matter that reflects the light of studio lamps in brilliant contrasts of red and white. Desperate networks wishing to compete amp up the anxiety of victims on lawyer/police dramas and move heavily into sexualized violence to add an additional layer to the sleaze factor. Thank g-d Fear Factor no longer is in production since one of its features is the consumption of disgusting items chosen to elicit gagging: living, crawling bulbous bugs, for example. (So popular was the show that it is now in syndication!) At least they don't whimper or bleat. Then there are cable shows where subscribers watch operations from beginning to end.

That said, these shows do stir controversy, don't they? I wonder what distinguishes the slaughter that Jamie Oliver performed on camera from the violence that viewers are accustomed to seeing.

One factor, of course, is the difference between fiction and real life, as much as so-called reality television blurs such distinctions. There is such a venerable and even distinguished tradition of represented violence going all the way back to the first recorded epics that we have grown accustomed to finding pleasure as well as ourselves in such forms of cultural expression. When you know no animals got hurt in the making of the film and no beautiful woman got snuffed, it's okay. It's just a movie. Who cares if it says something awfully distressing about who we are if we find the scored, choreographed stalking of Julia Roberts entertainment?

Another factor is the intersection of the categories of "baby" and "animal." Cuteness, vulnerability, instinctive desires to protect.....buy the leather jacket and the rib-eye steak, but shun the veal, etc. All these matter. We all know Mary's little lamb has a special place in the hearts of a nation that has just outlawed fox hunting. Couldn't the guy at least have chosen an unattractive species when he decided to butcher on film?

Context matters, too. People watch cookery shows for Food Porn. They want to salivate....or learn. Recently, Jamie Oliver has received particular respect for his good works, whether training youth from bleak neighborhoods to staff restaurant kitchens, or improving the quality of school dinners/lunches and making them healthful. Therefore, there are expectations that this Hot Young Daddy with a soul is not going to do the Jack the Ripper thing. What caught my eye in reading the linked story was the fact that the lamb was aware of what was happening to it. How much more accepting would viewers be if it were clobbered on the head first?

As much as I would like to think myself enlightened, someone who has caught my share of fish, eaten venison in the woods on Thanksgiving Day and knows where my meat comes from, I also know I would not want to watch the episode that is causing such a stir.

I am glad Charlotte spun her web and saved poor Wilbur, but how I loves me pork! We are by nature conflicted. Living with cruelty and the pain we inflict upon others is not easy and some of us handle it better than others do.

I am glad Jamie Oliver used his celebrity and his television audience to make his point, nonetheless. I would also like to assume he spoke to his audience and let everyone know what he was about to do when he caught the lamb, held it so it could not escape, and raised the knife.

Some who object and say children wouldn't turn off the telly and might be traumatized have other kinds of programming to object to as well. In some cases, they may be romanticizing the sensibilities of their children.

[Richard_D]

The TV channel did warn that it was going to be graphic so I can't see what all the fuss was about. He also looked genuinely distressed when doing it and very strongly made the point that if you're going to eat it you should be prepared to kill it.

Yes, it was a cute fluffy little lamb but I bet it tasted goood!

R

[FoodMan]

I cannot wait to see it in the US (yeah right...where at? FoodTV). I bought his latest book that accompanies the series and he has a couple of "graphic" pistures in there insluding the said lamb. I've always defended Oliver and this is no different, he believes in what he does and if we want to eat the damn thing we should know where it comes from. The brief warning that ran before the show (apparently) should have sufficed. It should be treated like all the other stuff we see on TV, if you do not like it, don't watch it. Tell you what though, I do not let my under-3 year old son to watch many things on TV (including CSI), but if this ever shows, he will see it. The lamb, I am sure, served it's purpose. Was it roasted whole?

[Venusia]

I am reminded of something Karen Resta said recently about the differing world views of people who watch television frequently and those who don't, an observation she reported from a class in Communications.

As someone who watches no TV, I'm curious about this. What did she say?

[cathrynapple]

the stupidest part? that lamb probably had a much better life AND death than a factory farmed lamb, chicken, duck, cow, etc. to me, a prepackaged discount supermarket chicken is much more horrendous

don't eat what you don't feel good about, is what i say.

[Shinboners]

Why the uproar?

Oh, right lambs grow on trees...

how silly of me.

←

I thought it just magically appeared in my grocer's refrigerator, wrapped in plastic and styrofoam?

←

When I was much younger, my dad showed me how to slaughter and prepare a chicken. I had no problems with it, and I was always happy to eat chickens prepared this way. However, my sisters refused to eat these freshly killed chickens - and yet, they're always happy to eat chicken if it's been purchased from a shop.

Stranger still, my sisters are happy to eat lobsters, crabs, and fish that were killed only moments before cooking.

Go figure.

[Shinboners]

The TV channel did warn that it was going to be graphic so I can't see what all the fuss was about. He also looked genuinely distressed when doing it and very strongly made the point that if you're going to eat it you should be prepared to kill it.

←

Thomas Keller wrote in the French Laundry cookbook about the first time he slaughtered a rabbit. He also said it was distressing, but the result was that he respected the animal, and it motivated him to cook the meat to the best of his ability and to never waste it.

He made the point that to a line cook, if a bit of meat is overcooked, they would have no hesitation in throwing it away and starting again with another piece of meat. By contrast, Keller said that his experience with the rabbit ensured that any bit of meat he was cooking had his full attention.

[Bill Miller]

Another retreat from reality and escape to political correctness--In Texas many contractors value their cattle as "quick assets" to qualiy for performance bonds. An underwriter from a metro area asked me how a cow was a quick asset. I replied because they could be sold quickly. He said "where can you sell a cow". I replied "in Brenham on Friday, Navasota on Saturday, Sealy on Monday, Giddings on Tuesday, etc, etc." He didn't even know what they were sold for.

I'm sure in his mind we treat cattle like slaves and should be punished for it. Food chain is something that never crosses his mind. Let 'em eat cake! Regards, Bill

[Grub]

The Naked Chef has been renamed "silencer of the lambs" after slitting the animal's throat while it was conscious.

Uh, how are lambs normally slaughtered? Should he have choked the poor, fluffy little thing until it passed out, or slugged it on the noggin with a mallet? Or wait until nighttime and sneak up on it in a ninja outfit, or something?

Heh, the anti-meat-eating crowd should be perfectly happy with that episode -- imagine how many nitwits will have a Linda McCartney-moment and disavow meat forever, after watching something so utterly evil, wicked and horrible

[Megan Blocker]

...wait until nighttime and sneak up on it in a ninja outfit, or something?

←

Now THAT'S good television.

[srhcb]

"dozens" of complaints!

Wow!

SB

[Bux]

Why the uproar?

Oh, right lambs grow on trees...

how silly of me.

←

I'm told my four year old grandniece asked her grandmother, my sister, where bacon comes from. When told pork, she asked where pork comes from. When told pigs, she replied "you must be kidding."

[melkor]

Uh, how are lambs normally slaughtered? Should he have choked the poor, fluffy little thing until it passed out, or slugged it on the noggin with a mallet? Or wait until nighttime and sneak up on it in a ninja outfit, or something?

←

They are usually zapped in the head with a taser. Clearly a much more enjoyable experience.

Meat comes from animals and they don't just decide on their own to be wrapped in plastic and put out in the display at your local butcher shop. People have to accept that animals need to be killed before we can eat them. Live cattle for example aren't very easy to braise. One of the most important culinary lessons in life is that the cuter an animal is the more delicious it tastes. Ducks, rabbits, and lamb are prime examples of this. Get over it or eat nothing but salad.

[Megan Blocker]

One of the most important culinary lessons in life is that the cuter an animal is the more delicious it tastes.  Ducks, rabbits, and lamb are prime examples of this.  Get over it or eat nothing but salad.

←

Oh, man, so true. Especially as it pertains to lamb. Wow.