Cooked: Full-season discussion

April 9, 2016 3:02 PM - Season 1 (Full Season)

A new 4-part Netflix documentary series on food, cooking, sustainability, and our relationships with what we eat and how it is prepared. Hosted and produced by Michael Pollan, inspired by his book of the same name.
posted by jbickers (6 comments total)

A few stray, opening thoughts:

* The show has a VERY high production value, with beautiful cinematography and staging. It's a joy to watch, independent of the topic.

* Trigger warnings are probably necessary for episode 1, which contains some upsetting images of factory farms, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at a butcher shop. Also included is a truly strange practice of "smoking" a newborn baby, which the narrator (Pollan) refers to as a sort of "baptism by fire."
posted by jbickers at 3:07 PM on April 9, 2016

Even as a vegetarian, I absolutely loved this series. Michael Pollan is a treasure.
posted by nevercalm at 1:10 PM on April 10, 2016

Brilliant series. Warning for the masato preparation in episode 4 - hard to watch without gagging.
posted by unliteral at 11:06 PM on April 10, 2016

I enjoyed this as well. Though the one part that's really stuck in my head is from the bread episode. The idea that refined white flour is lacking in nutrition is not really news nowadays, I think, but this was the first time I've heard it discussed that single-culture yeast [is that the right term? I forget how he phrased it] is also an issue. That true sourdough more thoroughly ferments the flour and makes the bread easier to digest.

I love bread, and I don't have issues with gluten, but this totally has be contemplating making a sourdough starter.
posted by dnash at 7:57 AM on April 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've gotten thru about 3/4 of it and it feels really scattershot sometimes. The "Water" episode especially feels this way, as it kind of jumps from pots to talking about industrialized food and it doesn't feel like it's tied into how water is used in cooking. I guess Pollan didn't want to grab the low-hanging fruit by focusing on irrigation, livestock use of water, and climate change's effects.
posted by FJT at 9:30 AM on April 12, 2016

My partner loves lizards and really had a hard time getting past the first episode with the fire and roasting the lizards. I enjoyed the series though, I was quite surprised at how beautifully it was filmed though.
posted by Carillon at 1:50 PM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]