so Gilly!

Kitchen of earthly delights?

Posted on 31. Mar, 2010 by gilly in SEE

“I like my cheddar sharp and mature, like my men.”

From time immemorial the crossover between culinary delights and sexual frisson has inspired writers, poets, painters, chefs, television shows. Now, just as I’d recovered from (and begun to feel sufficiently jaded about) Nigella Lawson, whose approach to cooking once left me at a loss for words (she is a genre in her own right, summoning equal parts fascination and horror) here comes the next sexual revolution in cooking for TV audiences.

Enter The Delicious Miss Dahl (yes, granddaughter of writer Roald but also former plus-size model and cookbook author) who suddenly makes Nigella’s domestic antics seem downright nunnish. Sophie Dahl’s mood-cooking show, which premiered last week on BBC2 throws yet another cuisine conundrum at you.

Again: uncategorizable.

Here at least, no horror (save for the staggering amounts of sugar in that peanut-butter fudge–first 500g then another 200g confectioners’ for good measure) just unabashed sensuality. And those words coming at you fast and furious: voluptuous, I am obsessed with it, like walking into a bordello, smashing into it, the seduction of it and (my favorite) you know how you want it.

I watched, hypnotized, as she squished and fondled the buffala, popped spears of roasted sweet potato into her mouth, repeated the expression self-indulgent selfish pleasures about—oh—25 times! It was a full 10 minutes into the show before I even registered that my husband was watching too and that, surprise surprise, he was as transfixed as I was (though adorably claiming “I was not!” when I teased him about this later).

The fact that delicious Sophie wields a knife in a way that would make most cooks cringe is irrelevant as her come-hither blue eyes and double-entendres easily make up for any cooking transgression. Except transgression is, ahem, the entire point.

——–

P.S. Did I mention the suggestive close-ups of meringues and other foods rising in the oven, in accelerated-motion, with the music’s volume surging in synch?