Before we start! PSA <3
Would love to invite a round of reader submissions. My dream is to turn Palate Cleanse into a universe of thoughts and takes. If you have an idea for a piece (written/audio/visual) on something wellness/food/culture related that has been on your mind, send me a chat here on Substack or email me @ rosa.shipley@gmail.com (because I cannot… figure out substack email). We will collab! I can’t pay (yet!), but I will say: people read this! Which is fun. Okay here we go!!!
I have been thinking about silhouettes and refractions within the jumble of cultural placement and food-centered function. Okay, that was a lot! I’ll explain.
I had been on kind of an unintentional break from food media, but got pulled back in by two articles from this month. The first was “Where did all the chefs go?” by Rachel Sugar for GrubStreet. The second was “How TikTok is Reshaping the American Cookbook” from Priya Krishna in the NYTimes.
The former is about how we don’t talk about who is in charge of kitchens lately, but instead we “dine out on vibes”. The idea is that instead of building restaurants around celebrity names, spaces are curated more for the ambiance and experience. There’s also some talk around how, post-pandemic, chefs and restaurant workers have less patience for the industry and have moved onto corporate jobs or private cheffing. Like… think about when Antoni from Queer Eye started his restaurant. It felt weird!
The second article is about how TikTok stars are getting cookbook deals. There seems to be a questioning of TikTok creators’ capacity to formally write recipes, but an affirmation that they have “shot a jolt of energy into a sagging cookbook market”. Krishna interviews multiple creators, all who seem in agreement that it feels crazy that they got this opportunity… but also yay!
Reading them both side by side, I am struck by a specific question of placement. A chef used to mean this, but now does it mean this? For them both, there seems to be a pre-occupation with cultural object permanence. Object A (a celebrity chef) used to be at the helm, defining dining experiences, streamlining market strategy through culinary lore. Now… no more?
In the second article, the inverse: Object B (TikTok creators) has taken the place of Object A (renowned chefs). Do we feel okay about that? Did we give permission? Is personality (borne from democratized media) now more legitimate than writing practical recipes? Now… no more?
The undertone reads: this is happening… are we ok with it? I think of the dizzying nature of musical chairs, how we imagine spots to be added and taken away. I wonder if this vertigo comes, in part, from a newly focused, intimate-leaning gaze towards kitchens (à la “the Bear”, collective dinner party business structures, private cheffing, and pop-ups). Perhaps I am projecting, but in the curious look towards food culture of the past, there’s a hint of grief.
As so many cheffing structures have disappointed us and faltered, it feels normal to me that people want to go places for proximity to a feeling and not a person. It makes sense to me, too, that if we’re watching TikTok as television, we would want the literary accessories to go with. These questions seems to be shadow, or of silhouette — a mysterious shuffling of people in spaces. One that is deeply resonant as AI becomes more prominent in our human culture and also… as we just plain grow older. We try to find a sense of location through the questioning of legitimacy.
I am reminded of the Rumi quote:
“I have lived on the lip
of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I’ve been knocking from the inside.”
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Speaking of silhouettes, seeing Bottoms and Theater Camp felt like putting on an American Apparel hoodie from high school. So fucking comfortable, and comforting, to get to be held by again. There is nothing like laughing a lot at the movies!! I love buddy comedies more than almost anything.
Watching these movies and listening to Olivia Rodrigo, I feel like a teenager, on the cusp of something, angsty and unserious.
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I read Big Swiss, which was very fun and touches on my recent preoccupation: male therapists. And I also read “La Dolce Vita” by brilliant and iconic Tanya Bush, which I had somehow missed last month and which was extraordinary. I read it in the back of a Lyft and was so engrossed that I didn’t get nauseous.
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I am holding a Meditation/(small) Meal on Sunday, Sept 24th in Greenpoint. Sign up here by tomorrow, there are a couple spots left <3