When did we decide making food should be stressful? I believe it was around 2009, when MasterChef Australia took off, with its explosions and tears and plate-throwing; of course we ruthlessly exported it, like the Hemsworths.
Along the way, cooking went from being an act of service to an extreme sport. As a result, you can now watch people shout and cry as they decorate a mille-feuille on most of the streamers. Cooking is now a form of combat – there are Cake Wars, Cupcake Wars and Culinary Class Wars – and frequently, pure spectacle. You can make a cake that looks like a lifesize Superman (ahem, Super Mega Cakes) – but, as I said out loud while watching two contestants have a fight about time management, when is someone going to fucking eat something?
