Strange culinary encounters:

In this article, we examine the ways in which the encountering of 'other' food cultures is played out in the two travelogue cooking shows Gordon's Great Escape and Jamie's Italian Escape. We investigate how the two protagonist chefs Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay imagine, meet and evaluate the ‘other’ food cultures in these programs, paying special attention to how the encounter with the local Indian and Italian is imagined to be a gateway to an authentic and/or primitive experience. Our main argument is that despite Jamie and Gordon's ‘noble’ intentions and their ‘enlightened’ cosmopolitan approach to meeting the other (culinary culture), ultimately, their respective culinary adventures work to re-affirm a social hierarchy in their favor.