Berkeley professor and resident Slow Food shaman Michael Pollan crafts an eight-page, 8300-word manifesto to the Times in which he ruminates on the phenomenon of food television and the subsequent death of cooking. He grumbles about oafish shows like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives ("What can possibly be the appeal of watching Guy Fieri bite, masticate and swallow all this chow?") but more quizzically, also about cooking shows in general ("You don't see shows about changing the oil in your car"). Fortunately, somewhere between pages six and seven, right before the part about taming primates, Pollan explains how Bobby Flay strikes the heart of our identity as human beings. Or something. [NYT]
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