The Carnivorous Mission of the Celebrity Chef

Th is chapter focuses on how celebrity chefs support meat consumption. Every day in Europe and in the USA, on myriads of food shows, celebrity chefs, TV presenters, journalists, and amateurs cook, recommend, and eat meat. On the face of it, this seems benign in a “carnist” culture, 1 as people are free to decide what to cook and eat in front of the camera. However, what television hides in these frequent representations is that for the last 20 years the scientifi c community has been considering meat as a problem for both the external environment and the human body. I will return to this division between the external environment and the body at the end of this chapter. What is important to note here is that disease, pathogens, medical costs, pollution, and animal suff ering are among the issues linked to meat consumption.