Budding Gourmet

Today in class, we screened 4 feminist films concerning  recipe art/food art, all from within a five-year period of one another in the early to mid-seventies.

(1) Martha Rosler’s “A Budding Gourmet”

Rosler sits at a dining table with empty plates and without any trace of food or drink. She is dressed plain and looks emotionless into the camera, describing her newfound love of gourmet cuisine, food from other cultures, etc.

Rosler illuminates how the concept of the gourmet is bound up with notions of class, as well how the kitchen, traditionally seen as the woman’s sphere of power, is used to cultivate mastery over other cultures, just as surely as is the “male” sphere of politics. Rosler was to continue exploring this theme in The East is Red, The West is Bending.
— Electronic Arts Intermix online catalogue

Something that I think was mentioned but not discussed in class was Rosler’s extremely distinct voice. If you forget that this film is supposed to be parodying the culture of gourmet foodies, you might just go into a trance and think these are Rosler’s real views and ideas. It’s almost impossible to listen to her voice and not think “this is Martha Rosler speaking” and to pretend for a minute that she is playing a character…

Watching this, my mind sent me back to this bit by David Cross about Eating Gold in an excessively fancy restaurant in New York.

(2) Suzanne Lacy’s “Learn where the meat comes from”

Oh my god. This film was amazing. It’s a feminist classic, and a perfect example of the kind of “disruption” that Rosler talks about. At first, the film is just typical fare cooking show. The woman, played by Lacy, prepares a lamb roast, giving detailed step-by-step information as any good cooking show does. While the roast is in the oven, she begins a lesson on cuts of meat. Slowly, she begins to deteriorate into this completely bizarre irrational nut. It happens out of nowhere and she gets progressively weirder. I always want this to happen! Watching any popular TV show or soap opera, I always hope for this shift into the surreal, into the bizarre. I was really happy when it became strange. As we discussed in class, this is a Brechtian technique of distantiation…this is also what Sirk does.

“The greatest pleasure in life is carving a roast at your table.”

I love how completely normal this film begins. I envision it airing on TV and housewives or whomever watching it, and then freaking out about how progressively strange it becomes ….And then questioning everything.

(3) Nina Sobell’s “Hey! Baby! Chickey!” and (4) “Chicken on Foot”

W.T.F.?? As I was watching, I had no idea how to feel or what to do. Should I be watching this? Is this funny or terrible?