The Food Network is splashed with different types of men doing their thang in the kitchen.  Getting down and dirty with their mean man selves in front of the oven.  Slicing juicy red meats on their thick
wooden cutting boards.  Filling their man hands with sliced veggies then dropping them into pans, bowls, and casserole dishes.  Broiling, frying, seasoning, baking, and kneading a doughy masculine image in 30 minute or 1 hour segments.  I watch and learn tips and tricks, but I also admire, and *sigh*, breathe in the image of a man who knows how to get honey from a jar into a pot without it sticking to the spoon, by heating the spoon first - of course!

The Urban Peasant and Wok with Yan, Canadian cooking shows from the 1980's, seem like very distant memories considering the way we see men such as Emeril, Riccardo, Jamie Oliver, or Gordon Ramsay cooking on television in 2009.  The Urban Peasant featured James Barber, a food critic for the Vancouver Sun, who had a passion for showing how simple cooking can be.  He was a grandfatherly figure, a cooking host who breathed heavily into his microphone during long pauses, and sat down to enjoy his meal at the end of each episode.  Wok with Yan featured Stephen Yan, also from Vancouver, who showcased stir frying in all its glory,who was famous for his one-liner jokes and changing the 'wok' pun on his apron each episode (e.g. "Over woked, Under paid!").

Now, the most popular cooking shows on Canada's Food Network feature men who are empires, executive chefs, and multiple restaurant owners.  They are represented not just as cooks anymore, but as sex objects, political entities, designers, family men, businessmen, and representatives of a new and different type of man.  The actual lives, fashion choices, physical features, opinions and personalities of these men have become important parts of the show.  Jamie Oliver and Gordon  Ramsay, the most well known male celebrity chefs, highlight some changing expectations and boundaries of the modern man.

The appearance of distinctive style, simplicity, and self-assurance are crucial to the image projected by these two men in their television shows, books, and restaurants.  The undelying message is that it is not good enough to be crafty and comfortable in the kitchen like the Urban Peasant or Stephen Yan.  A man who cooks and wants to be noticed should also find time to be well put together and know who he is.  In Jamie at Home, the style of the show is homegrown, DIY, organic British cooking with food from his own garden.  His books feature this homegrown style with cover art of him in his trademark plaid button up shirts.  He employs underprivileged youth in his restaurants and leads campaigns against processed food in schools.  We are experiencing Jamie, he is truly the 'Naked' Chef - a sweet and sensitive, down-to-earth, scruffy looking, occasionally bumbling and always attractive British bloke.

In the F Word, or Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, the style of the show is voyeurism.  We are watching a master wearing the latest in British male fashion or trademark chef whites, at work, occasionally stopping in to play with his lambs and his children.  His books and restaurants exude a sense of high class taste, mastery and unabashed confidence in the appeal of his French-Italian cooking.  He yells, but is forgiven because he's a media darling, and favoured like a first born son, and because he is passionate.  We are experiencing Gordon as well as 'Chef' Gordon Ramsay - a confident, over-achieving, obsessive compulsive "man's man," occasionally downright mean and always determined.

These men and their shows are hugely successful.  Their success sometimes uses old gender stereoypes such as aggression and a lack of patience in Gordon's case and sensitive innocence in Jamie's case.  They are, however, also re-writing gender stereotypes by being passionate about the kitchen, committed to better quality food, and showing some emotion (gasp!) for a household activity.  The range of emotion is another story!  Perhaps we could see Gordon thoughtfully considering a personal dillemma or Jamie crying over a rotten shallot - would it be such a stretch?

Gordon and Jamie's brand of foodie-masculinity crosses media and national boundaries.  These are not just recipes.  We're following the lives and lifestyles of these men, their views, their families, and their circles of friends.  You can have the Chef Ramsay or Naked Chef experience on several television networks and in your kitchen.  Travel to the right city or town and eat from a restaurant that they own or have mentored.  Not only can you try a delicious pistachio cream mousse but you can feast upon a different type of modern urban man.  Bon appetit!