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In Japan, Food as the Ultimate Show
Hosts Hiroshi Sekiguchi and Yuji Miyake of the popular Japanese television food program "Which Dish?" try one segment's special ingredient.
(Photo Courtesy Of Yomiuri Tv)
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"The idea is to make the viewer feel that they are actually eating the food themselves, making it so they can almost taste it," he said.
On Namakura's program, two dishes are prepared using the best ingredients, then a panel decides which one to eat. The show plays to Japanese viewers' focus on the most minute of details. During one recent episode -- grilled salmon vs. miso-marinated mackerel -- commentators tracking down wild salmon in Alaska offered a locator map of migration patterns and a scientific explanation for the development of the fish's reddish-pink flesh. Later, intense close-ups of fat sizzling off the grilling salmon led one commentator to proclaim, "I have never seen such a beautiful thing before."
Food secrets are jealously guarded. One Japanese farmer agreed to lead crew members from "Which Dish?" to his mountain mushroom patch only if they did not disclose the location and blurred out all identifying landmarks. Mushrooms are a recurring theme. In another episode, emotive music accompanied the tale of a farmer's daily struggle to cultivate ever more succulent King Pearl mushrooms using a homegrown mixture of horse manure and hay.
Yet some Japanese wonder whether the daily cornucopia being served up on TV may be one reason for the gradually rising national obesity rate revealed in recent studies.
A proliferation of Western-style fast food and popular instant noodle dishes have received much of the blame. But are all those delicious TV spreads whetting the national appetite a bit too much?
"The Japanese love the culture of food," said Yukio Hattori, who was one of the creators of "Iron Chef" and now has nine food-related shows on the air here. "But we have to be careful. We don't want to lose sight of the need to eat right."
Special correspondent Akiko Yamamoto contributed to this report.
