Next on America’s Test Kitchen: Faces of Death
I’ve seen a handful of cooking shows over the years but only America’s Test Kitchen has warranted my ongoing time. In the past, at least, the show has featured practical recipes that are reasonable to make at home. It also has good segments on product tastings and gadget testings.
A recent episode included pan-roasted lobster, though, and it left me rather disturbed. It was not a recipe I was interested in watching being made, or ever making myself, and I found the repeated twitching of the lobster, in spite of cook Julia Collin’s assertions that it was “perfectly normal,” perfectly awful.
I’m not a vegetarian, but I limit my consumption of fish and meat, and seek out organic and kosher meats and fish because the animals are raised and killed more humanely. Blogenheimer recently linked to David Foster Wallace’s article for Gourmet magazine, in which he queries �Is it all right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure?� After watching that episode of America’s Test Kitchen, I feel pretty certain the answer is no.
On a more positive note, I was surprised during the episode by an animated segment on flambe, and highly entertained by it. The old science segments from the show were quite dull. The new animated one was not only interesting, but clever and informative. The animation was by Odd Todd. I hope that the show moves away from obscure recipes and on-air lobster butchering, and includes more animated cooking techniques. Otherwise my tv roster may get just a little bit shorter.
February 2nd, 2005 at 6:38 pm
I’m glad to hear you are enjoying ATK. But if you’re upset about the lobster I’m pretty much the guy to blame.
You’d be amazed at how much time we spent discussing and debating the different way’s of killing the lobsters. The way we showed you is much faster and more “humane” than boiling or freezing a lobster to death. The other problem is that we were pan broiling it and both pre-boiling or pre-freezing would have ruined the dish. We discussed starting with the lobster already cut up, but as you’re probably aware the ATK style is to show, in detail, how a dish should be prepared at home. The cutting of the lobster was too important to skip.
We know that some people are offended by the way it looks when we cut them up, especially the twitching that occurs well after they are dead. The problem is an even larger number of people like to eat lobster, and this being the most deliceous lobster recipe I’ve ever tried, we wanted to present it.
So, with me leading the way, we just went for it. It’s my own opinion that eating something your too disgusted to watch being prepared is the hight of hypocrisy. For those who don’t eat lobster and were turned off, what can I say other than we won’t do it again any time soon. Although we will break an egg from time to time.
I’m glad you liked the new science segments. We’ve been trying to come up with the right way to do science for years and then our producer discovered Odd-Todd. I think he’s a major talent.
Again, thanks for watching, adn I hope the rest of this season’s offerings don’t cause you such difficulty.
Herb Sevush
Director