Fork In Review

This documentary was part of the Sydney Film Festival 2015. It follows some food bloggers who fly around the world with the express purpose of dining at the most expensive restaurants, eg. Noma. They get selfies with celebrity chefinators, and take photos of the (usually small) objets d’art which are about to be wolfed down in seconds.

The objet d’art has a very short life between kitchen and stomach, therefore making it seem a bit pointless. It’s possible that the bloggers probably feel they are performing a very important social service. But they’re not really, because these celebrity chefinators are very unlikely to dish up something that is not palatable or immaculate, with no cause for complaint.

However, one of the bloggers, Andy Hayler, managed to find something to complain about – a lobster dish, and the French champagne he’d consumed. This caused the cinema audience to laugh, perhaps thinking something like “self-indulgent prat”, “poor wee petal”, or “first world problem”.

The Chinese blogger, Katie Keiko, was shown around a kitchen after her meal, and she looked lost. The inference from this could be that she had little idea about the production end of the food – only about the conspicuous consumption. How about a selfie with a celebrity farmer instead?

Would it be plausible to suppose that a food blogger might arm themselves with a smidgen of knowledge about food and cooking?

Then there was the Lithuanian ex-model turned celebrity blogger, Aiste Miseviciute. She flew to Japan, where there was a shot of her at a fine dining restaurant to eat two pieces of sashimi fish and leave. There were no signs of wasabi, pickled ginger, sake or tea. From what the viewer saw, it appeared to be an abstemious and joyless experience. Where is the satisfaction in eating two bits of plain raw fish? With no condiments or accompaniments?

The opinionated New York blogger, Steve Plotnicki, just wanted an argument! So he had one with chef Wylie Dufresne at his restaurant, WD-50.

Before we make accusations about conspicuous consumption which these bloggers open themselves up for, one of them correctly pointed out that other expensive hobbies are more easily accepted.

The big question is why are these bloggers so influential?