-
http://ics.sagepub.comStudies
International Journal of Cultural
DOI: 10.1177/13678779030062005 2003; 6; 229 International
Journal of Cultural Studies
Joanne Hollows Chef
Oliver's Twist: Leisure, Labour and Domestic Masculinity in The
Naked
http://ics.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/6/2/229 The online
version of this article can be found at:
Published by:
http://www.sagepublications.com
can be found at:International Journal of Cultural Studies
Additional services and information for
http://ics.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Email Alerts:
http://ics.sagepub.com/subscriptions Subscriptions:
http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navReprints:
http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.navPermissions:
http://ics.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/6/2/229 Citations
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
A R T I C L E
INTERNATIONALjournal of
CULTURAL studies
Copyright 2003 SAGE PublicationsLondon , Thousand Oaks,
CA and New DelhiVolume 6(2): 229248
[1367-8779(200306)6:2; 229248; 033345]
Olivers twistLeisure , labour and domestic masculinity in
TheNaked Chef
Joanne HollowsNottingham Trent University, England
A B S T R A C T Despite the explosion of interest in cooking ,
there has beenlit tle research into the meanings that men bring to
their cooking practices. Thisarticle examines how a mode of
domestic masculinity is negotiated in JamieOlivers television shows
and cookbooks. Drawing on Marjorie DeVaults work , inwhich she
argues that cooking is a way in which women construct themselves
asrecognizably womanly, the article argues that in The Naked Chef
cooking isconstructed as recognizably manly through associa tion
with recognizablemasculinities. The construction of the masculine
domestic cook involvesdisavowing the extent to which cooking is a
form of labour and constructing it asa fun leisure and lifestyle
activity. The article draws on Bourdieus work tosuggest that the
ability to experience cooking as leisure is dependent on adistance
from both economic and temporal constraints, a posit ion that is
bothclassed and gendered .
K E Y W O R D S class cooking domestic labour food leisure
life-style Masculinity television
Jamie Oliver is a phenomenon in the UK. Discovered in the
kitchens ofLondon restaurant The River Caf during the filming of
another cookeryseries, Jamie was launched in his own show, The
Naked Chef, in 1999.Two further series of The Naked Chef followed
along with four bestselling
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 229
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
230
cookbooks.1 In the process, Jamie Oliver has become a powerful
brandused to sell videos, DVDs, an album and live tour dates,
alongside table-ware and cookware. He is also the face of
Sainsburys supermarkets,featuring in high-profile advertising
campaigns and on product lines in-store. Outside the UK, The Naked
Chef has also had considerable successin a range of territories,
capitalizing on the expansion of lifestyle program-ming on global
television. For example, the Food Network, a US cablechannel, has
now co-produced a 26-part series, Olivers Twist, sellingJamies
cooking, lifestyle and London location to international
audiences.
The power of Jamie as a brand stems from his shows negotiation
of thetelevision cookery format to emphasize the importance of
lifestyle.2 TheNaked Chef is distinguished by the way it
incorporates cooking sequencesin Jamies apartment within a wider
display of the Jamie lifestyle, in whichhe is shown riding his
trademark Vespa around London, shopping, eatingwith friends and
engaging in a range of leisure pursuits. The Naked Chefdoesnt
simply educate the viewer about how to cook, but how to use foodas
one element in an expressive display of lifestyle (Lury, 1996: 65).
Thisis accentuated by the shows visual style which draws on pop
videos andemploys a grainy realist aesthetic to create the sense of
The Naked Chefas a docu-soap about Jamies life (Moseley, 2001:
38).3
This article focuses on how The Naked Chef constructs cooking as
amasculine lifestyle activity,4 building on Moseleys argument that
JamieOliver negotiates the tension between the new man and the new
lad.(2001: 39) However, as the next section goes on to explore,
work on newmasculinities within cultural studies has tended to
focus on their produc-tion and negotiation in public, urban space
rather than domestic contexts(Mort, 1996; Nixon, 1996). In this
way, the article seeks to open up debatesabout new masculinities by
examining how Olivers image attempts toreconcile public and private
masculinities.
Furthermore, the article suggests that in negotiating a mode of
domesticmasculinity, Jamie also negotiates the tension between the
figures of thefeminine domestic cook and the masculine professional
chef. Indeed, whatis striking about Oliver is the extent to which
he refuses the legitimacy ofthe professional chef in culinary
matters, despite his background, andcontinuing employment, in
professional cookery in a restaurant kitchen.This is particularly
striking in a UK-context in which professional cookeryhas been seen
as the legitimate arena for a masculine culinary practice thatis
usually seen as superior to feminine domestic cookery (Coxon,
1983;Mennell, 1996). Indeed, a number of celebrity chefs such as
Marco Pierre-White and Gordon Ramsay have gained fame by
accentuating their machocredentials. In what follows, I go on to
explore how Jamie refuses theseconventions of culinary
masculinity.
However, in order to embrace domestic cookery, Oliver also has
to nego-tiate its associations with femininity. Academic work on
gender andcookery, frequently motivated by a wider interest in the
sexual division of
INTERN AT ION AL journal of CULTURAL studies 6(2)
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 230
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
labour, has been primarily concerned with the meanings women
bring tocooking practices within nuclear family structures (Charles
and Kerr, 1988;DeVault, 1991; Murcott, 1995). This has resulted in
a relative lack ofinterest in mens relationship to domestic
cookery, although research thatexists suggests that men cook when
it can be understood as leisure ratherthan labour (Kemmer, 1999;
Roos et al., 2001). For critics such as DeVault,womens cooking
practices are a principal means through which womenperform caring
for others and through which a woman conducts herselfas
recognizably womanly (1991: 118). Such a position is reaffirmed
byhistorical research suggesting that domestic cookery can only be
understoodas manly when it is made consistent with traditionally
masculine charac-teristics, spaces (such as outdoors) or foods
(such as steak) (Inness, 2000).Cookbooks for men frequently present
cooking as something easilymastered while maintaining that
masculine incompetence in the femininesphere of the kitchen is a
virtue.5
As a result, The Naked Chef incorporates cooking within a cool
mascu-line lifestyle, by disavowing the extent to which both
cooking and theconstruction of lifestyles can be experienced as
labour rather than leisure.This emphasis on cooking as a leisure
activity not only reaffirms masculinedomestic cookery as a leisure
and leisured practice but also affirms thedispositions associated
with the new petit-bourgeoisie, in which there is amorality of
pleasure as duty (Bourdieu, 1984: 367). Although Moseleyargues that
Jamie sells a discourse of accessibility and achievability
(2001:39) the following discussion suggests that this is only
achieved by obfus-cating the extent to which cooking as both
domestic labour and lifestylepractice involves work.
In the process, the article brings together debates about
cooking both interms of the sexual division of domestic labour and
the leisure-work (Bell,2002) involved in constructing and
maintaining the lifestyles through whichthe new middle classes
distinguish themselves.6 Indeed, the article suggeststhat while the
dispositions of the new middle classes are usually seen
asgender-neutral characteristics, they presume a position of
distance fromdomestic labour that is more readily available to men
than women. In thisway, the article is also situated within wider
feminist appropriations ofBourdieu about how access to different
forms of capital (economic, cultural,social and symbolic) and the
ability to capitalize upon them, is related toboth class and gender
(Skeggs, 1997; forthcoming).
One of the (larder) lads: domesticity and new masculinitiesin
the UK7
Jamie Oliver draws heavily on the new lad, a central figure in
mensmagazine publishing and popular television in the UK in the
mid-1990s whofuelled considerable debate in the press.8 However, as
Moseley has noted,
Hollows Olivers twist 231
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 231
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
232
Jamie Olivers image also draws on the 1980s new man, in both his
incar-nations as nurturing, anti-sexist, caring, sharing man and as
a narcissis-tic urban consumer (Beynon, 2002: 101). In order to
construct domesticcookery as recognizably manly, Jamies image
depends on these recog-nizable masculinities.
However, attempts to articulate these antagonistic masculine
identitiesproduce contradictions in Jamies image. For example, the
new lad has beenseen as a figure based on a refusal of the
political correctness associatednot only with feminism but also the
nurturing new man (Whelehan, 2000).Indeed, this refusal is neatly
illustrated in the cookery column of the ladmag Later which offers
laughably easy dishes that look like they wereprepared by a
sensitive modern man who really went to a lot of trouble.(author
unknown, 1999a: 144) In this way, Later mocks the new mans
seriousness and wasted labour, reaffirming the lack of seriousness
that ischaracteristic of the lad mags (Jackson et al., 2001).
Despite the presence of cookery columns in many mens
magazines,academic work on both new man and new lad has shown
little interest inhow these masculinities are formed in relation to
domestic space and prac-tices. One of the axiomatic images in
British debates about the new manwas that of Nick Kamen stripping
down to his boxer shorts in a launderettein an advertisement for
Levis 501 jeans. However, Nixon observes, bydoing his washing in a
commercial public space, the new man was relievedof the unglamorous
weight of domestic laundry (1996: 2). This commentcould also be
seen as an apt metaphor for the position of domestic labourand
leisure in academic debates about the new man. In cultural
studies,critics have concentrated on how masculine identities are
formed throughparticular metropolitan public spaces of consumption,
which operate as amasculine playground (Mort, 1996: 82) and where
the narcissistic newman was constructed at the level of the
spectacle.9 This preoccupation withmens public consumption
practices leads to a corresponding neglect of thesignificance of
domestic consumption (and the relationship between publicand
private). Indeed, these debates, which were preoccupied with
figures ofmodernity such as the flneur, also drew on a
long-standing vocabulary ofmodernity that was anti-home and
celebrates mobility, movement, exile,boundary crossing. It speaks
enthusiastically about movement out into theworld, but is silent
about the return home (Felski, 2000: 86).
Domesticity also figures as a problem in debates about the new
lad. Inthe lad mags studied by Jackson et al., the new lads single
lifestyle is basedon the necessity of avoiding the constraints and
traps of marriage, includ-ing domestic duties (2001: 81). It is
perhaps for this reason that, while thebabe is the central figure
of femininity in the lad mags, figures of maternalauthority play
the crucial role in the construction of the new lad asnaughty boy
(Hunt, 1998: 8). Furthermore, these magazines use lifestyleto
address the tensions between domesticity (culturally coded as
feminine)
INTERN AT ION AL journal of CULTURAL studies 6(2)
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 232
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
and mens working lives, and consumption is presented as an
alternativeto domestic responsibility and emotional commitment
(Jackson et al.,2001: 1423). The new lad is precariously
positioned, attempting to escapethe domestic yet contained by it.
This tension is given a culinary manifes-tation in the lad mags,
where the takeaway and the ready-meal, largelyproduced and bought
within the public sphere but consumed within thedomestic, are given
a privileged position.
A number of characteristics associated with the new lad are
incorporatedinto The Naked Chef. First is the use of language:
recipes and ingredientsare repeatedly described as pukka, funky and
wicked, and even foodswhich suggest seriousness and a moral
approach to healthy eating aresubject to an attempted
transformation into lad food by being rebranded aspukkola (Oliver,
2000: 32). Oliver combines this youthful language withsome of the
mockney linguistic turns that have also been favoured by thelad
mags: Jamie gets into dodgy situations where he might have to leg
it;he meets a bloomin great geezer, refers to his wife/girlfriend
as the missusand likes a Ruby Murray (2000: 1112; 2001: 90). As a
result, he fitsneatly with the image of the new lad as middle class
but in love withworking-class masculinity, a masculinity that
represents both authenticityand stability (Hunt, 1998: 7).
Second, as Jackson et al. note, media debates have tended to
condensethe new lad to a series of attributes such as football,
music, booze and babes(2001: 37). Babes prove somewhat problematic
for the Jamie image as hisgirlfriend (and later wife) Jules is a
frequent presence in his TV shows andcookery books and, as Rachel
Moseley notes, extra-textually much hasbeen made of his family
values (2001: 38). Nonetheless, The Return of theNaked Chef draws
on the visual style of the lad mags, featuring a shot ofJules
(cropped so that she remains headless) wearing a tight t-shirt with
thewords tuck in across her breasts. Sport, music and booze are far
less prob-lematic: Jamie plays football, goes greyhound racing,
plays in a band andgets lagered-up with his friends. The obsession
with booze in the lad magsextends to the treatment of food and, in
particular, to cooking that can beperformed when drunk: Later
features Drunk Chef: Low-risk CookingWhen Youve Had a Few (author
unknown, 1999b: 146) and FHM offersDrunken Delights (author
unknown, 1999c: 44). Likewise, Jamie offers upa midnight pan-cooked
breakfast to cook for your mates after the pub.The Naked Chef
therefore suggests that cooking can be seamlessly incor-porated
into a new lad lifestyle and appear as natural as ordering a
take-away curry.
Third, the construction of the new lad in mens magazines
involves anavoidance of seriousness combined with an ironic tone
(Jackson et al.,2001). This is echoed in Jamies attempts to
demonstrate he doesnt takehimself, or cooking, too seriously and
his maxim that cooking has gotta bea laugh. Seriousness is also
refused through an often child-like rejection of
Hollows Olivers twist 233
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 233
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
234
different forms of feminine authority. Talking about a friends
mother, Jamieboasts, Ive changed Marys recipe to suit my taste Ill
probably get a slapfor it but thats cooking and you can do what you
like! (2000: 86). As Huntpoints out, forms of maternal authority
allow the new lads rebellion tomake sense: the New Lad doesnt want
to separate from the mother onthe contrary, he needs her to tell
him that yes, he is a very naughty boy(1998: 8). Other womens
authority is refused through a rejection of theircooking
competence: his mother-in-law boils the hell out of spinach(Oliver,
2000: 210) and my missus makes me fantastic mashed
vegetables,beautifully seasoned and drizzled with olive oil the
only thing is, they aremeant to be separate servings of boiled
carrots and new potatoes! (Oliver,2000: 215). Therefore, his
masculine culinary competence is distinguishedfrom feminine
domestic cookery in which overcooked vegetables representa British
tradition. Finally, Jamie also uses feminism as a model of
thefeminine seriousness and authority that must be refused in a
manner remi-niscent of the lad mags (see Whelehan, 2000). He
advocates that
If youre after some brownie points and youre a bloke I would
highly suggestbreakfast in bed for the missus . . ., and if youre
like my missus, sorry, thelovely Jules, you should attempt a little
bit of brekkie for your fella beforeasking him for a bit of cash
for that dress youve seen in Top Shop. But seriously, before Womens
Lib get on the phone . . . (2000: 23)
In this way, Jamie reproduces the position to feminism
articulated in the ladmags. As Suzanne Franks puts it, The message
was Stop patronizing me;I understand the equal rights thing. Now
lets have a laugh for Christssake. (cited in Read, forthcoming) In
this way, the refusal of seriousnessalso works as a refusal of
various modes of femininity.
If these features of The Naked Chef articulate domestic cookery
withfamiliar aspects of contemporary masculinity, then so do the
range ofhistorical and geographical identifications employed. As
already noted,Jamies speech alludes to a (mock) cockney
authenticity. Connections toLondon are established visually through
speeded-up footage of the Thames,indicating both the passing of
Jamies day and the pace of city life. Thecentrality of London as a
setting for a metropolitan, cosmopolitan mascu-linity is cemented
by the ways in which cooking sequences in domestic spaceare
intercut with sequences tracking Jamies movements around
locales(Soho, Islington, Notting Hill) and amid red buses and
barrow boys, whichhave come to act as signifiers of London-ness in
a manner established inBritish movies produced for an export market
(Wilson, 2001: 146). Jamiesmobility around the city works to
associate him with both the set of spatialidentifications and sense
of flnerie that Mort (1996) associates with thenarcissistic new
man.
This sense of London-ness is also articulated to a wider sense
of British-ness. Some of the dishes prepared by Jamie involve
(frequently minor)
INTERN AT ION AL journal of CULTURAL studies 6(2)
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 234
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
adaptations of traditional British fare such as the bacon sarnie
andEnglish breakfast. Comfort Grub is also linked to a nostalgia
for Britishdishes associated with memories of childhood . . .
coming home shiveringand wet after playing footie with the boys
(Oliver, 2001: 20). This sense ofnation is also compounded by the
soundtrack to The Naked Chef, which iscomposed of Britpop and acid
jazz (Moseley, 2001), associations which arecemented in the
cookbooks where a chapter on breakfast, Morning Glory,is linked to
Brit-pop band Oasis. These musical references articulate
British-ness to both the cool present and the past, through visual
and aural refer-ences to the 1960s and 1970s, periods which the lad
mags frequentlyassociated with a moment of authentic and natural
masculinity (seeHunt, 1998: 57).
However, if Britishness plays an important role in the
construction ofJamie Olivers image, Italianicity is also crucial to
his construction of adomestic culinary masculinity. This
Italianicity works to cement Oliversassociations with 1960s
masculinities through references to Mod style, fromthe Vespa he
rides to his Duffer of St George clothes. Italy is also the
corner-stone of his culinary repertoire: much of his professional
experience was inItalian restaurants and while the majority of his
recipes may not be authen-tically Italian, they clearly signify
Italianicity. This sense that Jamies ethnic-ity is imagined as a
British-Italian hybrid is compounded by the way inwhich he refers
to Gennaro, his Italian culinary mentor, as his Londonfather and
this is accompanied by insistent references to babies asbambinos.
This serves to inflect his family values (noted by Moseley),with an
imagined Italian tradition of family, rather than a British
family-values agenda, which usually signifies a non-youthful
conservatism. Part ofthe significance of this hybridity lies in its
relationship to an already estab-lished appropriation of signifiers
of Italy in some British youth culture, fromMods through to the
lifestyle magazines associated with the narcissisticnew man to the
other predecessor of the new lad, the casual.10 Therefore,the
Britishness which is a central feature of Jamies image, and of his
poten-tial to be exported and become a global celebrity,
incorporates elements ofItalianicity as an appropriate ethnicity
which itself has become a fetishizedobject of consumption (Ahmed,
2000; Skeggs, forthcoming).
If, in these ways, Jamie Oliver can also be understood as a
culinary exten-sion of mod (Hebdige, 1988: 75)11 then the
association with Italian food,and corresponding rejection of French
food, has a very specific functionto play in terms of Jamies
construction of a domestic culinary heterosexualmasculinity. The
reasons for this lie in the popular associations of thesenational
cuisines in a UK context: Frenchness is strongly identified
withposh restaurant cooking, while Italian food has been more
readily in-corporated into everyday British domestic cookery and
signifies a lessformal and more rustic tradition. The opposition
between the associationsof these national cuisines, and the
opposition between the posh and the
Hollows Olivers twist 235
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 235
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
236
rustic, lie at the heart of The Naked Chef. Olivers naked
cooking styleisnt about cheffy food, its for normal people who want
short-cuts and tips. . . its for anyone who is interested in
cooking tasty, gutsy, simple, common-sense food and having a right
good laugh at the same time (Oliver, 2000:11). This sense of
simplicity and commonsense is reinforced by thelanguage used by
Oliver: as Moseley notes, he uses words like bash,smash, and throw
and repeatedly describes his cooking as notponcey (2001: 38). The
use of such masculine and everyday language notonly distinguishes
Jamies culinary style from the more cautious and precisetone of
female cookery writers such as Delia Smith, but also from
theprofessional and technical vocabulary found in the cookery books
writtenby superstar male chefs.
Indeed, Jamies rejection of poncey cookery is less a rejection
of femininedomestic cookery than of the hegemony of the male
restaurant chef.12 Inthe UK, there is a long-standing association
between restaurant cuisine andFrench-influenced cookery (Mennell,
1996), an image reaffirmed by thenouvelle cuisine of the 1980s. As
a result of these changes, ornamentalcookery is no longer
associated with the feminine domestic cook as it wasin the 1950s,
and is now associated with the highly stylized visual aestheticsof
post-nouvelle cuisine. These associations are cemented on
television inprogrammes centred on chefs such as Gary Rhodes and
Gordon Ramsay.While these chefs may aim to translate their
restaurant styles into a domesticcontext, there is nonetheless a
heavy emphasis on the visual aesthetics offood and the domestic
cook is encouraged to serve meals plated-up andfinely tweaked. In
opposition to this, Oliver claims to still believe in thetwo things
that resulted in my name of the Naked Chef: using the
bareessentials of your larder and stripping down restaurant methods
to thereality of home (2000: 1213). For example, when Jamie
prepares amozarella, peach and parma ham salad, he suggests we
chuck it in themiddle of the table, none of this plated-up
business, advising us to rip apartthe peaches as cut ones look
commercial and horrible.13 In this way, Jamieseeks to strip away
the formality of the cooking and eating practices associ-ated with
restaurants to reassert the validity of domestic cookery (a
positionalso taken up by Nigella Lawson and Nigel Slater).
Furthermore, throughhis emphasis on words such as bare and
stripping, Jamie accentuates theimportance of an authenticity
homologous with popular conceptions ofItalian cooking in the
UK.
Some of Jamies legitimacy as a television chef comes from his
positionas a restaurant chef (and this was emphasized in title
sequences in the tele-vision show). This has no doubt been
consolidated by his association withThe River Caf, which itself has
spawned some highly successful cook-books, a television series and
a reputation as the canteen of New Labour.Indeed a sign that Jamies
time had come can be seen in Peter Lilleyscomplaint at the
Conservative Party Conference that the nation was now
INTERN AT ION AL journal of CULTURAL studies 6(2)
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 236
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
all about Britpop and The River Caf (Adams, 2000). However,
byrefusing the legitimacy of both the macho restaurant chef and
feminizeddomesticity, Jamie reclaims the domestic kitchen as a
sphere of masculinecompetence and a site for the practice of the
attributes of the new lad. Inthe process, he appears to ameliorate
the tensions that Jackson et al. identifybetween domesticity . . .
and mens working lives (2001: 142). However,as the next section
goes on to explore, gendered divisions between workand leisure
continue to produce contradictions within Jamie Oliversimage.14
You cant be serious? Leisure, labour and gender
However, Jamies adoption of a laddish wardrobe and a
corresponding lackof seriousness sits uneasily with an increasing
emphasis on caring, responsi-bility and the serious nature of
cooking. This emphasis on caring forserves to associate Jamie with
both feminine domestic labour and thenurturing new man, the
masculine figure associated with the politicalcorrectness that the
new lad refuses. This has been reinforced by Jamiesmore recent
portrayal of the new father. If this emphasis on care works
tocreate contradictions in Jamie Olivers image, these are partially
containedby his emphasis on domestic cooking as a fun, leisure
activity distinct fromlabour performed in the public sphere. The
following discussion assesses theextent to which The Naked Chef
reproduces the masculine dispositionstowards domestic cookery as a
creative leisure activity distinguished fromfeminized domestic
labour, examining how care and responsibility aredisplaced from the
domestic sphere and onto the public world of work.
Happy Days with the Naked Chef acknowledges that providing
personalattention in the preparation of meals is a means of
demonstrating care forothers. Womens magazines frequently suggest
that home-produced food isemotionally-superior, signifying womanly
labour but acknowledge thepractical constraints that impose a need
for convenience, despite its associ-ation with the impersonal world
of capitalist rationalization (Warde,1997: 133). While convenience
is absent as a prime consideration in TheNaked Chef (and the
relative lack of labour-saving devices in Jamieskitchen reaffirms
this) a chapter on Quick Fixes demonstrates an acknow-ledgement of
the importance of time constraints, and the need to managetime, in
preparing everyday meals (Warde, 1999). I didnt want Jules tofeed
herself on ready meals so I found myself custom-making the
fantasticJamie Oliver dinners in a bag , he claims, pointing out
that they also saveon washing-up (2001: 44). In this way, he not
only marks the differencebetween his professional and domestic
practice, but also incorporates whathave traditionally been seen as
elements of feminine domestic practice intoa domestic culinary
masculinity.
Hollows Olivers twist 237
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 237
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
238
If this attention to the needs of others threatens to undermine
Jamiesrefusal of seriousness, so his attachment to culinary values
puts him at oddswith his laddish image. Although stripping down
restaurant techniques iscentral to The Naked Chef, this can only go
so far without threatening hisprofessional credibility: for
example, he advocates making stocks fromscratch. Likewise, there
are awkward passages in the cookbooks whereJamie attempts to
negotiate his own preferences. In response to thequestion of why is
a twenty-six year-old full-blooded Essex boy devotingtwo pages of
his precious book to herbs?, he can only anxiously assertthat quite
frankly, theyre cool: not just cool, but very cool (Oliver,
2001:16). This anxiety also relates to the ways in which some of
his tastes mightbe seen as feminine (see Lupton, 1996): most blokes
when asked what theylike [to eat] say MEAT, MEAT AND TWO VEG that
means chipsand mash. Well, thats great me too. But you cant beat a
good salad(Oliver, 2000: 54). In this way, Jamies culinary cultural
capital (Bell,2000) demands a level of seriousness about cooking
that stands in anawkward relationship to the frivolity demanded by
the consumption activi-ties of the new lad, suggesting an uneasy
relationship between cooking asmasculine professional practice and
as a masculine lifestyle practice. Thissense of professional
responsibility is accentuated in his latest series,Jamies Kitchen,
a docu-soap in which he aims to train 15 unemployedyoung people to
work as chefs in his new non-profit-making restaurantventure,
Fifteen.
If Jamie can become serious in a professional capacity, to what
extentis this sense of responsibility maintained in his approaches
to domesticcookery? Happy Days demonstrates an increased sense of
concern with thesocial and cultural functions of eating as he is
increasingly positioned withinthe family and the domestic. In the
process, Jules is transformed from ababe into a wife as they become
a good team in the kitchen (2001: 9).However, most striking about
Happy Days, dedicated to the cooks oftomorrow, is the centrality of
children. As Jamie explains in the chapterdevoted to children and
cooking, getting your kids involved is definitely theway forward
for cooking in this country (2001: 65). While trying tomaintain a
distance from the position of the expert, he nonetheless
getsserious in his discussion of childrens food habits: Without
sounding like agoody-goody or a preacher, in general kids diets in
Britain are a nightmare(2001: 67). The reader is encouraged to
include their children in all aspectsof the familys food practices,
from shopping to cooking, enabling them tomake informed choices
while having good fun. This extends to the role offood in
sustaining family life: Turn the TV off (unless the World Cup is
on,of course) and simply enjoy eating together (2001: 75). However,
havingfun is a serious business: cooking with your kids is not
about making smileyfaces on pizzas . . . and disguising food. Its
about smelling, touching,creating, tasting, laughing and eating
(2001: 66).
INTERN AT ION AL journal of CULTURAL studies 6(2)
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 238
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
By taking on a position of parental responsibility, Jamie
becomes associ-ated with what are usually seen as feminine domestic
competences. Forexample, it is women who usually co-ordinate the
feeding work thatallows family mealtimes to be experienced as
quality time (DeVault, 1991).Furthermore, by producing meals,
mothers not only provide children withnutrition but also with love
and care (Lupton, 1996). While Jamie adoptssome of these
characteristics, what remains absent is the sense of anxietythat
mothers frequently experience in relation to the practice of
feedingchildren (Coveney, 1999; Lupton, 1996; Murphy et al., 1999).
Therefore,while Jamie is positioned within the domestic, he is not
defined by itsdemands and obligations. While womens anxieties in
the kitchen arise fromthe fact that the successful performance of
domestic femininity is frequentlylinked to feeding work, domestic
masculinity does not incur the same therisks or produce the same
anxieties.
Jamies relationship with maternal responsibilities is also
undercut by hisability to move between the positions of parent and
child. As noted earlier,he sometimes adopts the role of naughty boy
in relation to figures ofmaternal authority. However, Jamies
refusal of seriousness does not alwaysresult in the ironic distance
associated with the new lad, frequently mani-festing itself in
terms of a child-like enthusiasm in his descriptions of foodsas
pukka, cool and wicked. Indeed, Jamies image as a child is
moststrongly reinforced by repeated shots of him sliding down the
banisters inthe earlier series of The Naked Chef. This works to
confirm a conceptionof the domestic as a site of play rather than
work, reinforced by the waymuch of Jamies food is prepared for
parties and celebrations.
The Naked Chef reproduces masculine dispositions towards
cookingdiscussed in sociological research, turning domestic cookery
into a specialevent and a performance done in free time. Indeed,
the show usuallyfocuses on a (non-working) day in Jamies life.
Although he may cookhimself something simple for breakfast or
lunch, the narrative of the showusually deals with the preparation
of dishes over the course of a day for aspecial event with family
and friends. The relationship between cooking andperformance is not
only emphasized by Jamies open-plan apartment inwhich his culinary
activities can be viewed by dinner guests, but also theways in
which the presentation of food contributes to this performance:
forexample, sea bass served straight from a tin-foil bag is
described as realtheatre (Oliver, 2000: 153). Jamies gift to his
guests is not only the fooditself, but also his own performance in
the kitchen (Hollows, 2002). In thisway, domestic masculinity in
The Naked Chef draws on some of the dispo-sitions associated with
feminine domestic cookery while keeping itsmundane and repetitive
aspects at a distance, so that demonstrating carebecomes a
luxurious indulgence (Lupton, 1996: 146).
Hollows Olivers twist 239
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 239
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
240
Theres something quite brave about doing somethingbasic:
cooking, gender and the new petit-bourgeoisie
For Moseley, The Naked Chef emphasizes a discourse of
accessibility andachievability in which viewers is offered the
opportunity to make-over notonly their cooking but also their self
in order to achieve the Jamie life-style (2001: 39). From such a
perspective, Oliver can be seen as a culturalintermediary who both
practices, and popularizes, a particular form of life-style centred
within the culinary field. For Bourdieu, the cultural
inter-mediaries who are a product of the new middle classes make
available toalmost everyone the distinctive poses, the distinctive
games and other signsof inner riches which were previously
associated with the habitus of anintellectual elite (1984: 371).
However, Bell (2002) argues that televisionchefs, like gourmands in
general (Mennell, 1996) inhabit the paradoxicalposition of marking
distinction while also democratizing tastes. Thissection suggests
that The Naked Chef not only obfuscates the extent towhich cooking
is work, but also denies the labour involved in acquiringculinary
cultural capital. In the process, Jamie Olivers output serves
toaffirm his own distinction, along with both petit-bourgeois and
masculineculinary dispositions, by making his cooking look
effortless and accessibleto all.
Writing about television cookery, Niki Strange distinguishes
between thefigure of the feminine domestic cook, who presents
cooking as a practicaland social skill, and male celebrity chefs
who present cooking as a sensualand pleasurable practice (1998:
310; see also Bell, 2000). The formerapproach is exemplified by
Delia Smiths How To Cook, in which shepresents the acquisition of
cookery skills in terms of money, time, commit-ment and labour,
drawing an analogy between learning to cook and learningto drive.
The Naked Chef exemplifies the second approach, emphasizinghow
cooking can be a source of pleasure and entertainment for the
cook,and an aestheticized leisure practice (Lupton, 1996: 146)
centred aroundthe care of self.
Such an approach to cooking has been associated with a
professional andmasculine middle class for whom the preparation and
consumption of themeal . . . becomes a source of entertainment, of
enhanced sensory and socialenjoyment, pleasure rather than work
(Lupton, 1996). These dispositionsare based on a classed and
gendered distance from the demands of theeveryday, and the ability
to move between the positions of the disciplined,productive self
and the hedonistic, leisured self. These positions also havespatial
and temporal dimensions (Lupton, 1996: 151): for domesticcooking to
be experienced as an indulgent leisure activity rests on the
abilityto experience the home as a site of leisure rather than
labour and this, inturn, rests on a relatively clear demarcation of
the temporal relationsbetween public and private spheres. Because
Jamie is positioned as a
INTERN AT ION AL journal of CULTURAL studies 6(2)
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 240
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
professional chef in a domestic context, he can exemplify the
distinctionbetween cooking as professional work and domestic
leisure.
This representation of cooking as leisure in The Naked Chef also
extendsto other aspects of feeding work. While Jamie observes the
need to avoidthose aspects of domestic labour which cannot be
recoded as leisure (inparticular, washing-up) shopping is more
easily understood as a masculineleisure pursuit that can be
incorporated into his lifestyle. Indeed, it is in hisshopping
practices, with their emphasis on connoisseurship, rather than
hiscooking practices, that Jamie most closely resembles the
narcissistic newman. Jamie is constructed as a metropolitan
omnivore as he cruises thestreets of London on his vespa, moving
betweeen the mass supermarketand the popular street market, ethnic
grocers, upmarket niche outletsand the friends in the restaurant
trade who procure for him qualityproducts. He is also connected
with the narcissistic new mans flnerie ashe moves among the urban
spectacles that promote the idea of consump-tion as pleasure, a
connection reinforced visually in The Naked Chefs life-style
sequences that juxtapose images of urban life and consumer
goods(Nixon, 1996: 6272). This not only reinforces the connection
betweencooking and masculine consumption practices, but also works
to maintaina distance between Jamies shopping practices and the
more mundaneaspects of feeding work.
However, while Jamie frequently takes on the role of connoisseur
in theshopping sequences in public space, there also remains an
uneasy relationshipto this model of the masculine gourmet. Whereas
the connoisseur is frequentlyconstructed as someone who mimics the
masculine professional tradition ofhaute cuisine in a domestic
context, Jamies cookery is based on a refusal ofthe authority of
haute cuisine in a domestic context. Instead, Jamies
projectfrequently appears to be one of democratization in which he
aims to demys-tify cooking, adopting a friendly, chatty style and
introducing the cool prop-erties of herbs to all. As he puts it,
cooking has gotta be a laugh, its gotta besimple, its gotta be
tasty, its gotta be fun.15 While such an approach mightsuggest that
Jamies aim is the flattening out of taste cultures, the
dispositionstowards cooking he promotes are those associated with
the new petit-bourgeoisie whose lifestyle is based on an ethic that
makes it a failure, athreat to self-esteem, not to have fun
(Bourdieu, 1984: 3667).
Jamies promotion of an aesthetic of cooking as fun also denies
the labourinvolved in acquiring culinary cultural capital.
Furthermore, it denies theleisure-work involved in producing and
maintaining new middle-class life-styles. It is here that the
paradox between democratization and distinction,identified by Bell,
appears particularly pertinent. This is made clear whenJamie
comments:
The problem I get is cos everyone thinks Im a chef, they think
theyre goingto come round mine for like posh dinners and, you know
what, theres
Hollows Olivers twist 241
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 241
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
242
something quite brave about doing something basic like a fish
pie or a chilicon carne or jacket potatoes done really well. Thats
the twist isnt it? Justdo something that they have everyday but do
it really well and make it special thats the vibe I go on
anyway.16
Here, Jamie reiterates his refusal of posh food associated with
a restaurantand dinner-party tradition (and, in the process, the
formality of the oldmiddle classes). In the process, he
simultaneously embraces the simplepleasures of domestic cookery,
while refusing their simplicity by doingthem really well and making
it special. Jamie performs his own distinc-tion by demonstrating
that he can both occupy the realm of everydayfeminine domestic
cookery while rising above it. The tools to cook a goodchili are
offered to his audience through his demonstration of the recipe
andthe cooking process; how one acquires the ability to perform the
twist andthe vibe remains far less defined.
Furthermore, Jamie demonstrates his own distinction by being
braveenough to cook mundane dishes such as chili or fish pie, which
signifymass taste and feminine cookery. Lupton argues that the
professionalmiddle-classes sometimes engaged in a machismo of
eating, an almostinverse food snobbery, in which the more repulsive
the food, the morepoints are won for appearing gastronomically
brave and adventurous(1996: 128). While this bravery can be
demonstrated by eating exoticingredients such as bollocks and semen
(Oliver, 2001: 9) it can alsoextend to other acts of cultural
omnivorousness that transgress boundarieswithin, as well as
between, national cultures. Making something basic likea fish pie,
but making it really well, not only emphasizes Jamies braveryand
distinction, but also generates the pleasure that comes from
trans-gressing boundaries (while reaffirming them in the process)
(Lupton, 1996:129).
This ability to transgress everyday feminine domestic cookery
serves todistinguish Jamie from the home-cooking he appears to
embrace; heoccupies the domestic but is not contained, or defined,
by it. Masculinity isfrequently associated with a mobility that is
anti-home because home (likehome-cooking) signifies femininity and
familiarity, dullness, stasis (Felski,2000: 86). The continual
movement between domestic space and metro-politan public spaces in
The Naked Chef further reinforces Jamies mobility.Moreover, Jamies
domestic cookery is largely cosmopolitan, culled from arange of
different national domestic cuisines. If, as Beverley Skeggs
(forth-coming) argues, femininity is fixed so others can travel,
Jamies domesticmasculinity is based on an ability to enjoy the
feminine pleasures of thedomestic sphere as a realm of leisure
because it is predicated on the abilityto escape. Furthermore,
Jamies appropriation of femininity, obfuscates theways in which a
mobile and reflexive relation to gender is a privilegedposition in
late modernity (Adkins, 2002: 80). (Similar points might also
INTERN AT ION AL journal of CULTURAL studies 6(2)
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 242
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
be made about his relationship to Italianicity and
working-classness.) Likethe new lad, Jamie likes a bit of the other
but he doesnt want to be her.
For Bourdieu, the key factor shaping differences in lifestyle
and, evenmore, the stylization of life lies in objective and
subjective distance fromthe world, with its material constraints
and temporal urgencies (1984:376). Bourdieus argument seeks to
explain the relationship between classand lifestyle and, indeed,
the figure of the masculine cook in Jamie Oliverswork, as my
discussion has implied, is based on a new petit-bourgeoisaesthetic
in which distance from both economic and temporal
constraintsenables the potentially mundane acts of cooking and
eating to be producedas a right laugh and a source of fun. However,
Bourdieus argument maybe equally salient in understanding gendered
dispositions towards cooking.Jamies culinary masculinity, in which
domestic cooking is experienced as aform of creative leisure, is
also a product of a distance from domestic obli-gation and labour
(and the accompanying experience of time poverty andthe need for
constant temporal-management) associated with womensposition in the
sexual division of labour (Hollows, 2003). Jamies disposi-tions may
be open to specific women in specific social and
economicconditions,17 but his position in the sexual division of
labour is associatedwith masculinity. This also suggests that the
competences and dispositionswhich the new petit-bourgeoise have
been seen to bring to the art ofeveryday life may themselves be
more open to men than women and, inparticular, when they concern
aspects of domestic life.
Notes
1 This article concentrates on the three television series
produced byOptomen for BBC2: The Naked Chef, The Return of the
Naked Chef andHappy Days with the Naked Chef. The umbrella term The
Naked Chef isoften used in what follows to refer to all three
television series. These seriesspawned three cookbooks: The Naked
Chef (1999) The Return of theNaked Chef (2000) and Happy Days with
the Naked Chef (2001) (datesof first publication). Jamies Kitchen
(2002) published as I was finishing thispiece, is loosely based on
a new television series of the same name, whichfinished being
broadcast during the revision process. This new series, aChannel 4
docu-soap following Jamies attempts to set up a new
restaurantstaffed by unemployed trainees that he sought to
transform into chefs,marks a significant departure from his
previous work.
2 Nigella Bites uses a similar strategy.3 For a more detailed
analysis of the formal features of The Naked Chef,
alongside an excellent discussion of its mode of address, see
Moseley(2001).
4 This is not to suggest that Jamies audience is primarily male:
indeed,
Hollows Olivers twist 243
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 243
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
244
research by Sainsburys supermarket suggests that his primary
appeal is towomen and up-market families (Cozens, 2002).
5 For examples of books which emphasize either male culinary
incompetenceor a masculine unease with the domestic kitchen, see
Anderson and Walls(1996) Bastyra (1996) and Zen (2000).
6 This relationship between domestic labour and leisure-work is
furthercomplicated by the ways in which womens domestic labour
(including theactivities involved in feeding work such as shopping
and cooking) havefrequently been seen within more traditional views
of consumption as thefrivolous other of labour (for more on this
see, for example, Lury, 1996).
7 Larder Lads (playing on the frequent characterization of new
lad as lagerlad) a cookery book addressed to the new lad (Holland
and Moore, 2000)includes recipes from new lad icons and attempts to
incorporate recipesthat reflect contemporary food trends within a
laddish lifestyle of footballand take-aways.
8 In the press, the new lad was seen as an emergent figure of
20-somethingBritish masculinity. Conceived as a younger brother of
the new man, thenew lad was seen to eschew political correctness in
favour of an ironicembrace of more traditionally laddish pursuits
and attitudes.
9 Subcultural theory marginalized the domestic in a similar way
(McRobbie,1981).
10 Nixon (1996) identifies the importance of Italian styling to
1980s lifestylemagazines and Spencer (1992) notes the importance of
Italian style to thecasual. Thanks to Steve Jones for discussing
these issues with me and, fora further discussion of the
significance of Italianness to British masculinity,see Jones
(1995).
11 This draws on Dick Hebdiges comments about Len Deightons
HarryPalmer as a fictional extension of mod. This reference to
Harry Palmercan be seen as rather more than incidental. Palmer, and
his cinematic real-ization by Michael Caine in the film The Ipcress
File, are crucially linkedto the 1960s London working-class
masculinity celebrated in mens maga-zines, and implicitly in Jamies
image. Furthermore Palmer/Caine alongsidePalmers creator, Len
Deighton (himself a cookery writer as well as anovelist) were key
figures in producing domestic cookery as an acceptable,and even
heroic, signifier of heterosexual masculinity in the UK in the
early-to mid-1960s. Therefore, it is unsurprising that the launch
issue of theshort-lived Loaded spin-off Eat Soup (October/November
1996) a foodand drink magazine targeted at a male audience, should
feature Caine asHarry Palmer on the front cover accompanied by the
tag-line, MichaelCaine: Why its Cool to Cook. The magazine proceeds
to devote ten pagesto Caine/Palmer/Deighton (Deighton, 1996; Pride,
1996).
12 Possibly due to the influence of Jamie, poncey seems to have
acquired acurrency within culinary discourse in the UK as a means
of refusing thepretentions of restaurant chefs and their cooking
techniques. For example,
INTERN AT ION AL journal of CULTURAL studies 6(2)
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 244
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
the term was used to evaluate the styles of different chefs on
the BBC showThe Best by contributors to the on-line message board
to accompany theshow.
13 The Naked Chef, series 2, Reunion.14 There has also been
considerable resistance to Jamies omnipresence, life-
style and relationship with Sainsburys. For example, numerous
web-pagesdenounce him as a Mockney git, recast his claims to
authenticity asfake, and present his lifestyle and masculinity as
manufactured and,sometimes, feminized. (See, for example, the fat
tongue gallery,http://www.hairytongue.com/gallery/fattongue/,
accessed 23 July 2002.)
15 The Naked Chef, title sequence.16 Happy Days with the Naked
Chef, Moving House.17 Gregson and Lowe (1995) note how some
middle-class women use paid
domestic labour to relieve themselves of the less creative
aspects ofdomestic labour, making time to invest in
leisure-work.
References
Adams, T. (2000) Take Me to the River, The Observer, Sunday 30
April: 18.Adkins, L. (2002) Revisions: Gender and Sexuality in Late
Modernity. Bucking-
ham: Open University Press.Ahmed, S. (2000) Strange Encounters:
Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality.
London: Routledge.Anderson, D. and M. Walls (1996) Cooking for
Blokes. London: Warner Books.Author Unknown (1999a) 2 Fancy Looking
Meals any Buffoon can Make,
Later, Spring: 142.Author Unknown (1999b) Drunk Chef: Low-risk
Cooking When Youve Had
a Few, Later, Spring: 146.Author Unknown (1999c) Drunken
Delights: Fishy Noodles la Bainbridge,
FHM, May: 44.Bastyra, J. (1996) Cooking with Dad. London:
Bloomsbury.Bell, D. (2000) Performing Tastes; Celebrity Chefs and
Culinary Cultural
Capital, paper given at Crossroads in Cultural Studies
conference, Birming-ham University, July.
Bell, D. (2002) From Writing at the Kitchen Table to TV Dinners:
Food Media,Lifestylization and European Eating, paper presented at
Eat Drink and BeMerry? Cultural Meanings of Food in the 21st
Century Conference, Amster-dam, June.
http://cf.hum.uva.nl/research/asca/Themedia-reader.htm.
Beynon. J. (2002) Masculinities and Culture. Buckingham: Open
University Press.Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique
of the Judgement of Taste.
London: Routledge.Charles, N. and M. Kerr (1988) Women, Food and
Families: Power, Status,
Love, Anger. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Hollows Olivers twist 245
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 245
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
246
Coveney, J. (1999) The Government of the Table: Nutritional
Expertise andthe Social Organization of Family Food Habits, pp.
25975 in J. Germovand L. Williams (eds) A Sociology of Food and
Nutrition: The SocialAppetite. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Coxon, T. (1983) Men in the Kitchen: Notes from a Cookery Class,
in A.Murcott (ed.) The Sociology of Food and Eating, pp. 1727.
Aldershot:Gower.
Cozens, C. (2002) Sven joins Jamie in Sainsburys Dream Team ,
TheGuardian, 14 February: 22.
Deighton, L. (1996) On How a Gourmet was Born, Eat
Soup,1(October/November): 36.
DeVault, M. (1991) Feeding the Family: the Social Organization
of Caring asGendered Work. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Felski, R. (2000) Doing Time: Feminist Theory and Postmodern
Culture. NewYork: New York University Press.
Gregson, N. and M. Lowe (1995) Too Much Work. Class, Gender
andReconstitution of Middle Class Domestic Labour, in T. Butler and
M. Savage(eds) Social Change and the Middle Class, pp. 14865.
London: UCL Press.
Hebdige, D. (1988) Hiding in the Light: On Images and Things.
London: Rout-ledge.
Holland, L. and R. Moore (2000) Larder Lads: Just for the Boys a
Collectionof Mouthwatering, Simple Recipes. London: Ebury
Press.
Hollows, J. (2002) The Bachelor Dinner: Masculinity, Class and
Cooking inPlayboy, 195361, Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural
Studies,16(2): 14355.
Hollows, J. (2003) Feeling Like a Domestic Goddess:
Post-feminism andCooking, European Journal of Cultural Studies,
6(2): 179202.
Hunt, L. (1998) British Low Culture: From Safari Suits to
Sexploitation.London: Routledge.
Inness, S. (2001) Dinner Roles: American Women and Culinary
Culture. IowaCity: University of Iowa Press.
Jackson, P., N. Stevenson and K. Brooks (2001) Making Sense of
Mens Maga-zines. Cambridge: Polity.
Jones, S.L. (1995) A Nation at Ease with Itself? Images of
Britain and theAnglo-Britishness Debate, 197994, unpublished Ph.D.
thesis, NottinghamTrent University.
Kemmer, D. (1999) Food Preparation and the Division of Domestic
Labouramong Newly Married and Cohabiting Couples, British Food
Journal,101(8): 5709.
Lupton, D. (1996) Food, the Body and the Self. London:
Sage.Lury, C. (1996) Consumer Culture. Cambridge: Polity.McRobbie,
A. (1981) Settling Accounts with Subcultures: a Feminist
Critique,
in T. Bennett, G. Martin, C. Mercer and J. Woollacott (eds)
Culture, Ideologyand Social Process: A Reader, pp. 11123. London:
Batsford.
INTERN AT ION AL journal of CULTURAL studies 6(2)
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 246
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
Mennell, S. (1996) All Manners of Food. Chicago: University of
Illinois Press.Mort, F. (1996) Cultures of Consumption:
Masculinities and Social Space in
Late Twentieth-Century Britain. London: Routledge.Moseley, R.
(2001) Real lads do cook . . . but some things are still hard to
talk
about: the gendering of 89, European Journal of Cultural
Studies, 4(1):329.
Murcott, A. (1995) Its a Pleasure to Cook for Him: Food,
Mealtimes andGender in Some South Wales Households, in S. Jackson
and S. Moores (eds)The Politics of Domestic Consumption, pp. 8999.
Hemel Hempstead:Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Murphy, E., S. Parker and C. Phipps (1999) Motherhood, Morality
and InfantFeeding, in J. Germov and L. Williams, A Sociology of
Food and Nutrition:the Social Appetite, pp. 24258. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Nixon, S. (1996) Hard Looks: Masculinities, Spectatorship and
ContemporaryConsumption. London: UCL Press.
Oliver, J. (1999) The Naked Chef. London: Michael Joseph.Oliver,
J. (2000) The Return of the Naked Chef. London: Michael
Joseph.Oliver, J. (2001) Happy Days with the Naked Chef. London:
Michael Joseph.Oliver, J. (2002) Jamies Kitchen. London: Michael
Joseph.Pride, E. (1996) Michael Caine, Eat Soup,
1(October/November): 2634.Read, J. (forthcoming) The Cult of
Masculinity: From Fan-boys to Academic
Bad Boys, in M. Jancovich, A. Lazaro, J. Stringer and A. Willis
(eds),Defining Cult Movies: the Cultural Politics of Oppositional
Taste. Manches-ter: Manchester University Press.
Roos, G., R. Prttl and K. Koski (2001) Men, Masculinity and
Food: Inter-views with Finnish Carpenters and Engineers, Appetite,
37: 4756.
Skeggs, B. (1997) Formations of Class and Gender. London:
Sage.Skeggs, B. (forthcoming) Class, Self and Culture. London:
Routledge.Spencer, N. (1992) Menswear in the 1980s: Revolt into
Conformity, in J. Ash
and E. Wilson (eds) Chic Thrills, pp. 408. London:
Pandora.Strange, N. (1998) Perform, Educate, Entertain: Ingredients
of the Cookery
Programme Genre, in C. Geraghty and D. Lusted (eds) The
TelevisionStudies Book, pp. 30112. London: Arnold.
Warde, A. (1997) Consumption, Food and Taste: Culinary
Antimonies andCommodity Culture. London: Sage.
Warde, A. (1999) Convenience Food: Space and Timing, British
Food Journal,101(7): 51827.
Whelehan, I. (2000) Overloaded: Popular Culture and the Future
of Feminism.London: Pluto Press.
Wilson, E. (2001) The Contradictions of Culture. London:
Sage.Zen, Z. (2000) A Cookbook for a Man who Probably only Owns
One
Saucepan: Idiot-proof Recipes. Boston, MA: Lagoon.
Hollows Olivers twist 247
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 247
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from
-
248
JOANNE HOLLOWS is a Senior Lecturer in M edia and
CulturalStudies a t Not tingham Trent Universi ty. She is the
author o f Feminism ,Femininity and Popular Culture (M anchester
Universi ty Press, 1995), co-editor o f A pproaches to Popular Film
(M anchester Universi ty Press,1995) and The Film Studies Reader
(Arnold , 2000) and co-author o f Foodand Cultural Studies
(Routledge , forthcoming). She is currently w orkingon a book on
historical transformations in the rela tionship bet w eengender,
class and cooking in the UK . A ddress: M edia and CulturalStudies,
Department o f English and M edia , Not tingham TrentUniversi ty,
Clif ton Lane , Not tingham NG11 8NS, UK . [email:joanne .hollo
ws@ntu .ac.uk]
INTERN AT ION AL journal of CULTURAL studies 6(2)
59R 05hollows (ds) 25/6/03 1:26 pm Page 248
at ALLEGHENY COLLEGE on April 25, 2010
http://ics.sagepub.comDownloaded from