Gilles Lipovetsky and Jean Serroy, alone The new era of kitsch (Anagrama, 2025), describes the evolution of television programs dedicated to cooking. Six years ago, the authors reminded French television of culinary countries that have training with an objective and which is based on technical demonstrations. They are pedagogies with a more serious chef than with a severe chef, in defense that cooking is a dish that imperatively respects strict rules. They were programs, they wrote, with a didactic and sober tone, which “literally evaporated for the benefit of the hyperkistic spectacle”.
The idea of these darrers is not to transmit recipes, but to entertain the public, “captivate them through a culinary competition presented with a joke”. I am Iron chef, best chef, Master Chef, Nightmare in the kitchen Hey cook outside; famous baked. I’m not a fan, but they could perfectly include in this list the Cards game by Marc Ribas (TV3) or the Battle between restaurants brought by Alberto Chicote to La Sexta. In fact, this competition is an international format (My Rocks restaurant) which has been very successful in several countries such as Germany, Italy or France, and in Spain they have televisions such as Basque, Valencian or Madrid.
Serroy i Lipovetsky includes these show foods in its catalog of hyperkitsch products. The truth is that they tend to broaden the universe of kitsch and, in this way, make this theory more universal. Curiously, they criticize the fact that thinkers like Adorno and others carreguessin tort ia dret against commercial culture. Is it possible that popular music, cinema or advertising is only about pastries, repetitions of mateix?, you ask. It is not true, they continue, that all commercial works are still in bad taste and devoid of authenticity. The uncompromising reading of kitsch does not do justice to the cultural industries, they conclude. But they do not represent a significant expansion of the concept of kitsch. In all cases, whether they follow kitsch or not, the competitions conducted by Ribas i Chicote are inconsistent joguines that contain the entertainment of twenty with four competitors (not necessarily cuiners) who are torn to pieces. Cal once again denies the criticisms leveled at Libération de fa uns quants anys: the program is cannibalistic. It’s not about cooking… it’s about menjar-se els uns als altres.
Lipovetsky and Serroy have a book on kitsch culture that includes display foods in the catalog of hyperkitsch things
Chicote, willing to ennoble the competition, has a more solemn and less despicable pose in appearance Nightmare in the kitchenand he is used to the theatrical seriousness with which he presents himself on Top Chef. The trick is to limit your importance. The most obvious difference between the Catalan version of the competition is that Chicote has a large fork and a vermella to penalize, with one or two points, the score of each competitor who missed the other participants. For the Capitol of Tarragona, for example, there is a large fork towards one of them because it is admitted that the six scores do not respond to professional criteria, but to a strategy to obtain the best score. I must be very clear about the punishment of the chef: I must be clear about what many people have learned from other senses. Because this is the great evil of this format. The song of the participants who vote honestly according to their criteria, and therefore must play both notes, on the lower side, to achieve victory. I don’t know what Chicote will miss. That one of the competitors admitted it publicly?
TO Card game They incorporated this throughout The Mysterious Resense. After visiting the first restaurant, contestants will make an anonymous rating, from which Ribas will receive a prize for the second time. The aim, according to those responsible for the programme, is to provide “sincerity, tension and a touch of intrigue”. It supposes televisius values that have no res a veure amb la cuisine. The prize is 5,000 euros (Chicote donates 10,000), but, certainly to compete in quantity, there will be a grand final where the reward will be 15,000 euros. I understand. Like Lipovetsky and Serroy, everything evaporates in favor of the spectacle.
