Oliver's Twist

Abstract

Despite the explosion of interest in cooking, there has been little research into the meanings that men bring to their cooking practices. This article examines how a mode of domestic masculinity is negotiated in Jamie Oliver's television shows and cookbooks. Drawing on Marjorie DeVault's work, in which she argues that cooking is a way in which women construct themselves as `recognizably womanly', the article argues that in The Naked Chef cooking is constructed as `recognizably manly' through association with `recognizable masculinities'. The construction of the masculine domestic cook involves disavowing the extent to which cooking is a form of labour and constructing it as a `fun' leisure and lifestyle activity. The article draws on Bourdieu's work to suggest that the ability to experience cooking as leisure is dependent on a distance from both economic and temporal constraints, a position that is both classed and gendered.