Cook yourself thin

This is one of the summer TV offerings from Channel 4. Since I love cooking and am losing weight I've been tuning in. I like the basic premise a lot: teaching people how to make their favourite take-out or restaurant meals in equally delicious but lower-fat versions. It reminds me of a feature I used to love in US Shape magazine, where readers would send in their favourite recipes and the Shape dietician would produce a healthier version for them. So, loving the recipes, intending to try out the Chicken Caesar Salad sometime very soon.

But. But but but. I have a real problem with the presentation of the show. A feminist problem. All the "diet transformation" candidates seem to be women. All the cooks are women. That's fine! If only there were more casually all-female shows on TV. But... gah, where do I even start? Perhaps with the fact that the four female chefs are introduced each week with their name and their dress size. Not their qualifications, not the restaurants they've worked in, not even the fact that they might have lost weight themselves. Their dress sizes. I can't believe that any bloke, even one fronting a show about healthy eating, would agree to have his waist measurement listed before a list of actual accomplishments.

And of course, it's not really a show about healthy eating, is it? It's not a show which demonstrates to busy parents how to feed their children tasty meals that are healthier than ready-meals. It's not a show that educates lawyers in how to prepare quick healthy food more easily than ordering in takeout. It's a show that takes women, buys them a dress a size below the size they're currently wearing, and then gives them six weeks to fit into it. In which all the women cook wearing cocktail dresses and cleavage-plunging tops. Which, far from impressing us with the creativity and intelligence of good chefs, has them uttering lines like "We're making this with beef, which comes from a cow." From now on, I'll be just cribbing the recipes from the website. I guess the title should have told me everything I needed to know.