Cheesecake is Sexy?

This week in class, we talked about "food porn" and how television shows make food more interesting and make us want it more. "Food porn" is a sensual visual presentation of cooking or eating in advertisements, infomercials, cooking shows, or other visual media. In most cases, these foods are often high in fat and calorie content and they arouse a desire to eat them or can be almost like a substituted for sex. Before class, I never really thought of the cooking channel as this but now I see the shows a bit differently.



This clip from Nigella Lawson is an example of 'food porn' because she makes the cheesecake almost sexy with the words she uses to describe it. Such as smooth, luscious, rich, gorgeous, golden, shiny, perfect, and soft. Also, she makes it seem normal that she is making a cheesecake on a Saturday night in her robe, like everybody does that. The way she describes the cake and show's the cake, it makes me want the cheesecake and almost makes my mouth water thinking of how good it is. In my opinion, I consider that to be food porn, making me want something that I can not have and to cause those physiological responses. Also, the music that is playing in the background is almost like mood setting music to make you feel more sensual. Another thing that I noticed is that the lighting is very dim and can also be thought of as setting the mood.