English: Gordon Ramsay's Sesame Crusted Tuna (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's summer and my kid is sitting in front of my desk, with the t.v. tuned to a cooking show. That reminded me of this little rant I published in the LATimes not long ago, asking what it says about America that half of us slobber over food shows like Gordon Ramsay's, while a quarter of us, including lots of children, are hungry. From the story:

The rise of our cultural obsession with the behind-the-scenes intricacies of glamorized food preparation, and the ubiquity of perfectly plated dishes on television, seems to have coincided rather neatly with the national dive into economic disaster and mass hunger. Food pantries can barely keep up with demand, and hungry, down-on-their-luck families wait in dingy public service agency offices across America, filling out forms for unemployment, WIC and welfare, while the screen on the wall is more likely than not instructing them about "drizzling virgin olive oil" on "julienned" peppers.