is that the cooks/chefs featured in them don't think twice about tasting a dish they are cooking and then dipping the spoon back in it. Ugh!! There is this concept of food getting "jootha" in India that I cannot explain properly in English. I don't know if there is an equivalent word in English. When someone eats from a plate, or tastes with a spoon, it is considered "jootha". Now if you dip that spoon back into the pan/pot, the entire pot is considered jootha. Makes sense to me too - when you put a spoon in your mouth, you transfer germs from your mouth/saliva to the spoon and when that spoon is dipped back into the pot, the germs are then transferred to the entire contents. I just don't think it is very hygienic.
Another thing I have noticed in some shows is that the chefs don't wash their hands properly even after handling meat. Another hygiene alarm. I don't think I'd be able to eat in their kitchen with a carefree mind!
Here's my take - if I can eat phuchka on the street and digest it, I can eat anything!
ReplyDeleteAlternatively - turn a blind eye to it, and it won't hurt you :P
It's TV food. After watching a number of these shows being taped, in most all instances, the food is NOT eaten. As Tom Coliccio said, "We just throw it away after the taping anyway". (SOBE, Feb 2009). In real chef kitchens, they have tasting spoons, a stack of teaspoons always positioned near the stove, thrown immediately afterwards into the sink. What you DO see being eaten was cooked before the taping began.
ReplyDeleteSure,but have eaten the street food?
ReplyDeleteIt's called "double dipping", courtesy Seinfeld.
ReplyDeleteLike bfrangipane said, it's just for show. I have an uncle who photographed food for magazines and he said they mostly photographed it half cooked and coloured, so... :)
ReplyDeleteIt is called double dipping here in the US. I have seen one cooking show where the contestant was seen double dipping and the judge refused to eat that food saying his DNA was mixed in it and that guy was rejected..
ReplyDeleteSandhya
Even if it weren't the concept of 'jhoota', it's still unhygienic to dip your spoon back into food after tasting it.
ReplyDeleteSuki: Come to think of it, I haven't eaten puchka from the street for similar reasons! Grew up with a mom who thought the same way I do so I never got introduced to street food :P
ReplyDeletebfrangipane: I learnt something new today! Thanks. But I do wonder why not show what they practice on TV? It wouldn't hurt to see the chef throwing the spoon into the sink after tasting from it, would it?
Mr. Chowla: Not that much :P Maybe a few times when I first got married but not since. And this OCD with hygiene is what has been stopping me from hiring a cook :(
Anurag: Yeah, but "double dipping" doesn't quite convey the same meaning as jootha, does it?
Sue: I knew that about food being photographed but didn't know about the food shows.
ReplyDeleteSandhya: Like I said to Anurag, double dipping doesn't really convey the meaning of the word "jootha" no? I hate double dippers too!
Mummyjaan: Hai na??