Slides on how to teach discourse analysis of cooking shows and celebrity chefs through Labov's narrative theory and Fairclough's synthetic personalization. Examples are drawn from Food Network.

1. Cooking Shows,
Celebrity Chefs,
& Identity
• Keri Matwick, PhD
• Sep 30, 2020
• MAE801/MAE901 Discourse Studies

2. Menu
• Background
• The Rise of Celebrity Chefs
• Constructing Identity on Cooking
Shows
• Storytelling- (Labov)
• Synthetic personalization-
(Fairclough)
• Data & Theory: How to do Discourse
Analysis of Cooking Shows

3. Keri Matwick
PhD, Linguistics (2016)
University of Florida (USA)
Lecturer
Language and Communication Centre, NTU

4. Rise of Celebrity Chefs
Celebrity chefs over time
- Professionalization of French haute cuisine
- Marie-Antoine Carême (1783-1833), French chef,
“king of chefs and chef of kings”

5. Rise of Celebrity Chefs
Early American celebrity chefs:
- Julia Child
- 1960s, The French Chef
- Cooking show that made French cuisine widely
available for the first time, targeted middle-class
viewers

6. Rise of Celebrity Chefs
Contemporary Celebrity Chefs- presence of mass media
Food Network
-24-hour American food tv channel
-Launched in 1993
-Narrowcasting – tv channels developed for niches
-Turned cooks into stars; food + lifestyle
-Model of food television programming worldwide

7. Celebrity Chefs and Cooking Shows
What are some characteristics of a
celebrity chef?
How is cooking viewed in your
home country?
Are cooking shows popular?Western view of celebrity chef
• culinary skills + personality
• create culinary trends
• promote foodstuffs, “celebrity chef effect”
• generate new interest in cuisines
• household name
Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsey, Curtis Stone,
Rachael Ray, Guy Fieri

8. Cooking Show genres
Cooking show genres
• How-to
• Travel
• Competition
• Talk show
• Kids

9. Rachael Ray- Food Network celebrity chef
Rachael Ray
- Iconic Food Network television
personality since 2001
- Bestselling cookbook author
- Editor-in-chief of her own
magazine
- Host of syndicated daytime
program
- Launched extensive product line
- Runs a nonprofit organization,
Yum-o!
Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals
• 2001-2012
• Revived in 2019
• Cooking show that teaches how to
make a meal in 30 minutes
• Practical, time efficient

10. Rachael Ray, 30 Minute Meals
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/miss-leslies-ham-salad-on-biscuits-recipe-1951866
Read the transcript
Watch the clip
Listen to the story
Try to identify what is happening in each
stage of the story

11. Storytelling – Labov’s narrative framework
What is a story? A way to recount the past, usually sequential
Narrative Category Narrative question
Abstract What was this about?
Orientation Who or what are involved in the story? When and where did it take place?
Complicating Action Then, what happened?
Evaluation So what?
Resolution What finally happened?
Coda How does it all end?

12. Let’s watch the
video again…
Identify the function of
each component in the
cooking show. What
happens in each step?
What purpose does it
serve in the narrative?
Narrative
Component
What is it doing in the cooking show?
Abstract Announces the recipe; cues the start of
a story
Orientation
Complicating
Action
Evaluation
Resolution
Coda

13. Identify the function of each
component in the cooking show.
What happens in each step?
Narrative
Component
What is it doing in the cooking show?
Abstract Announces the recipe; cues the start of a story
Orientation Provides background to the recipe; her
inspiration for it
Complicating
Action
Continues story; tells the difficulty of getting
an authentic recipe
Evaluation Tells viewer what is important; certain
ingredients distinguish a recipe from others
Resolution Tells viewer how she resolved not knowing the
recipe by adding her own ingredients
Coda Renames dish; concludes story
Function of each
narrative component

14. Constructing
Identity through
Storytelling
Bucholtz & Hall- identity a product of linguistic interaction
Cooking shows- celebrity chefs construct their identities
through narrative strategies.
Rachael Ray shows her perspective, attitude, and approach to
food and cooking through discourse
- Passionate about food - “one of the big bonuses of working
in food is you meet other people who love food too”
- Curious- asks friends for recipes of their specialty dish
- Creative- adds some of her own ingredients

15. Storytelling
and Identity
Construction
Stories give a certain
representation of a person.
What kind of story is given on
this cooking show?
How would you describe
Rachael?
Rachael-isms
• Sammies (for
“sandwiches”)
• Stoups (for “soups that are
thick like a stew”)
• EVOO (for “extra-virgin
olive oil”)
• Yum-o (for “yummy”)
• De-lish (for “delicious”)
• Easy-peasy (for “super-
easy”)
These expressions are part of her identity and the Rachael Ray brand.

16. Storytelling + recipe telling
Read the transcript
Watch the clip
Listen and identify the:
storytelling + recipe telling
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/heavenly-creme-filled-cupcakes-recipe-2178896

17. Storytelling + recipe telling
To celebrate my love of all things chocolate, I’m making Heavenly Cream Filled
Chocolate Cupcakes. A really rich chocolate cupcake with a really yummy creamy filling.
Now, I’ve got two sticks of butter melting in the saucepan and I’m adding four
heaping—as you can see (holds up the tablespoon) tablespoons of cocoa. For the
cupcake batter, I’m just using a classic chocolate sheet cake batter.
My mother-in-law gave it to me when I became engaged to her son, and I use it for
cakes, cupcakes, anything that needs chocolate cake.
So, I’m going to turn up the heat just a bit…
Recipe telling
Present tense
Past
Now- adverb
So- continuer
As you can see- direct address to viewer

18. Storytelling + recipe telling
To celebrate my love of all things chocolate, I’m making Heavenly
Cream Filled Chocolate Cupcakes. [Abstract] A really rich chocolate
cupcake with a really yummy creamy filling. [Evaluation]
Now, I’ve got two sticks of butter melting in the saucepan and I’m
adding four heaping—as you can see (holds up the tablespoon)
tablespoons of cocoa. For the cupcake batter, I’m just using a classic
chocolate sheet cake batter. [Complicating Action]
My mother-in-law gave it to me when I became engaged to her son,
and I use it for cakes, cupcakes, anything that needs chocolate cake.
So, I’m going to turn up the heat just a bit…

19. Synthetic
Personalization
Storytelling creates a sense of intimacy
with the viewer.
This is called synthetic personalization.
• “the simulation of private face-to-face
discourse in public mass-audience
discourse” (Norman Fairclough, 1989)
Synthetic personalization on Cooking Shows
Greetings,
farewells
“hiya!” “don’t go anywhere”
Personal
pronouns
I, you, we, us
Hedges sort of, you know
Tag questions isn’t it? right?
Phrases you know what I mean!

20. Synthetic
Personalization
Media techniques
• close-up shots
• intimate scene; setting at
host’s home kitchen
• bloopers
Paralinguistic features
• eye contact
• smiling
• winking
• nodding
• leaning in

21. Your turn… tell a story and a recipe!
Think of your favourite recipe and write a story about it. Use Labov’s narrative components:
• Abstract- provide some context (title of the recipe)
• Orientation- what inspired the dish? How do you eat it?
• Complicating action (recipe telling)- how do you make the recipe?
• Evaluation- what does the dish taste like? Are there special ingredients involved?
• Resolution- when do you serve the recipe? How does the recipe end?
• Coda- how does the story end? (bon appetit!)
Take turns exchanging your story + recipe with a classmate.
What language did you use to transition from the story to the recipe and back to the story?
How would you describe your partner based on his/her story?

22. Theory and Data Selection
How do you pick your data?
For me, I enjoy watching cooking shows. I began to listen more carefully. I realized that there was a pattern to the way they
talked. Each discourse genre has a particular way of talking. So, on cooking shows, there is a particular language used to cook.
But, hosts do more than cook. They tell stories. So, I asked why? For what purpose? Storytelling, so I read about narrative theory.
• So, for you, what kind of discourse do you like and want to understand better?
You can approach the same data from different angles.
• Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)- critique class, gender, power
• Gender studies- look at the correlation between gender and language use
• Multimodal Discourse Analysis- examine the correlation between verbal and nonverbal modes

23. What kind of popular media do you like?
Identify the kind of language you could study for these genres:
Blogs
Magazines
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Podcasts
Twitter
TikTok
Blogs- storytelling, headings, integration of visual + text,
interaction between author and readers on discussion threads
Facebook- language of friendship
Instagram- branding and sponsored posts (e.g., Nike, narrative of
personal empowerment)
Twitter- politeness strategies

24. Questions?
Thank you!