The first use of the word was recorded in an article in The Globe and Mail in January 17, 1985 by Joanne Kates in her article, “Fixing Food that's Picture Perfect”. For such a new word, its meaning has quickly evolved in two directions.
Wordspy detail the meaning as “the suggestive pictures and prose used to describe recipes in upscale cookbooks or menu items in fancy restaurants”. The examples provided are “succulent, mouth watering, tantalizing, tender and melt in your mouth”. I for one had never contemplated these words as provocative, merely descriptive. If I were ever to describe my wife in these terms to her face, the provocation would probably result in physical blows!
To convey the second meaning of Gastroporn, there is no better evocation than Richard Glover provides in the Sydney Morning Herald, in an article on July 13, 2002. He explains Gastroporn gets the juices flowing, suggesting that Playboy has gone and couples now sit in bed looking at the beautiful images of food in magazines such as Gourmet Traveler and Delicious, imagining the sensations of eating such delectable food. The suggestion is in the imagination of the food, not a sexualising of it.
That was in 2002. A seed had been sown, and a seed can take time to grow, given the fertile plains of a receptive ear. So in 2007, Gastroporn became mainstream. On January 16, 2007, in USA Today, Craig Wilson in his column Final Word reviewed a new book.
“Next Now: Trends for the Future”, written by Ira Matathia and Marion Salzman. Marion Salzman, an advertising executive from New York, is credited with coining the term “metrosexual”. Reasonably heady stuff. In a section covering phrases for the future culture, Gastroporn is described. “Preparing, cooking, tasting and eating food have become voyeuristic fantasies separated from the physical reality and carried out by experts who go through the moves with practiced ease”.
So where does that leave us, the humble servants of our animal lusts? Fantasies are better than the real thing. So does that mean we have a new fad diet, look but do not touch? If it helps to move the tide of flesh that ebbs and flows around my midriff, I am all for it. If only it were that simple.
It is the sinning of food I am unsure of. When was it bad to eat? Five servings of fruit and vegetable a day, you can't have any pudding if you don't eat your meat, you can't fight a battle on an empty stomach, another piece of cake? And does that make Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson and the like, Gastroporn stars. I don't even want to think about that!
But the sexing up of food has got to be a good thing. If you put your regular meat and two veg on a photo shoot, the only thing that might drool would be the Bruno, the household dog. To take food to the heights of fantasy and photo specialty, you have to have good food. Food that looks like it has flavor. Food that inspires feelings of the exotic. Food that you feel could transcend time and place and transport you on a magical carpet to a beautiful land with warm tropical breezes tugging at your sleeve. And good food is good, no question about it.
The question then is how to take good quality and varied produce, and create the wonderful food we dream of and aspire to cook ourselves. Knock knock, who's there? Chef! Chef who? All those wonderful chefs that train and slave, retrain and extend the culinary capacity of the modern eating world. There are some great ones that have helped to put good food in front of us and have helped us to expand our own creativity in the kitchen. The fun is back in food too. It is Gastroporn that has brought this alive and it matters not what it is called, the process has been a good one.
Gastroporn has made us more knowledgeable, less likely to be pushed around in the culinary stakes. Ooh, bad pun. Cooking and eating are back on the table, ooh sorry again, to be discussed and picked over. Gastroporn has involved all of us in the journey of food, even if as little passengers in the restaurant car. We are more knowledgeable of food and what each ingredient can provide as far as flavor, texture and nutrient. We will know more of how the food is grown and some of the many ways of their preparation and what ingredient goes with what. We are able to make choices of the food we buy, the correct potatoes for a particular dish, organic or not organic, farmed or free range. We also know better, that plate of food that is tucked under our chin, has had a lot of time and effort expended in its creation. We appreciate the providers, the grower and the chefs or cooks.
With food, I don't think the fantasy is better than the actuality. Gastroporn at least keeps you thinking and dreaming. Janos Arany, the Hungarian writer and balladeer once wrote, “In dreams and in love, there are no impossibilities”. That may now be true.
