Celebrity Chefs, Food Media and the Politics of Eating

Working across food studies and media studies, Joanne Hollows examines the impact of celebrity chefs on how we think about food and how we cook, shop and eat. Hollows explores how celebrity chefs emerged in both restaurant and media industries, making chefs like Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay into global stars. She also shows how blogs and YouTube enabled the emergence of new types of branded food personalities such as Deliciously Ella and BOSH! As well as providing a valuable introduction to existing research on celebrity chefs, Hollows uses case studies to analyse how celebrity chefs shape food practices and wider social, political and cultural trends. Hollows explores their impact on ideas about veganism, healthy eating and the Covid-19 pandemic and how their advice is bound up with class, gender and race. She also demonstrates how celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Nadiya Hussain and Jack Monroe have become food activists and campaigners who intervene in contemporary debates about the environment, food poverty and nation.

List of FiguresAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Celebrity Chefs, Restaurant Industries and the Culinary Field2. Celebrity Chefs and the Media Industries3. Food, Health and the Feminine Body4. Veganizing Masculinities5. Food Heroes, Food Politics and the Campaigning Culinary Documentary6. Eat Well for Less: Celebrity Chefs and Austerity Culture7. Celebrity Chefs, Food and Nation8. Celebrity Chefs and British Food Culture in the Times of Brexit and Covid-19NotesBibliographyIndex