Televised cooking shows have emerged as a genre with an
established format in the entertainment industry. This chapter will
look at cooking shows as a communicative event with a predictable
sequence of acts and a set overt (instruction) and covert
(entertainment) goal. This highly focussed and
potentially formal communicative event (Irvine 1979) typically relies on
strategies of informality, that by now have become a convention of
the genre, in order to distract from its directive ‘lesson’
character. In a comparison of several cooking shows by US Southern celebrity
chef Paula Deen, I will pay attention to changes in conventions of
formality and informality which can be observed over time.
Particular emphasis will also be placed on the linguistic features
which are indexical to Paula Deen’s US Southern persona.
Article outline
1.Introduction: Food voyeurs or watching what we cook and eat
2.From recipe to cooking show: Development and diversification in food preparation
genres
3.Performing the recipe: The establishment of the cooking show as a communicative
event
4.Changing patterns of formality and informality in cooking shows
as communicative events
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