Store-Bought Is Fine A monthly column from Rax King on TV chefs, food media, and the class barriers of cuisine.

In Defense of the Worst Cooks in America

The soundstage’s kitchen didn’t have a dishwasher, so he was forced to make dishwasher salmon in the oven instead—like some kind of hack.

Sep 22, 2020
To All the Pirate Bars Ayye’ve Loved Before

Visiting a beloved bar is less about the bar itself and more an attempt to re-inhabit happy memories, to open a door that leads to them.

Jul 08, 2020
Alton Brown Made Cooking More Approachable, One Prop at a Time

It was a corny, educational joy, as if Bill Nye and Monty Python had teamed up to teach America how to cook.

Apr 20, 2020
How Easy Is That?: Chasing Ina Garten’s Perfection With My Mother

On other cooking shows, the cooks might make mistakes and laugh about them. Ina Garten has never made a mistake.

Feb 25, 2020
The Pioneer Woman and the Fairy Tale of Country Cooking

What does the word “country” mean? Does it mean anything on its own or does it just color in Americans’ fuzzy sense of what constitutes Americana?

Jan 22, 2020
Samin Nosrat, Phil Rosenthal, and the Spirit of Eating with No Reservations

Do we hold the specialness of each meal at the core of our travel? Or is a meal that happens during a vacation a shadow of the memories it serves to create?

Nov 25, 2019
Cooking, For Men: How Bobby Flay and Competitive Cooking Reinforce Hypermasculinity

I suspect that these shows, which characterize speed and hustle as natural elements of cooking, are part of the male professional kitchen’s effort to divorce their work from the feminine history of cooking.

Oct 23, 2019
Sandra Lee Opened a Can, Made a Cocktail, and Showed Me a Mother’s Love

Critics say that Sandra Lee’s idea of cooking is nothing more than opening a can and having a cocktail. Here’s the thing: That’s true! But who cares?

Sep 25, 2019