Cooked (2016) User Reviews (11)

Such a great journey in the evolution of gastronomical inventions

[Navaf · 9/10 · 16 April 2016]

What I really relished watching this series is when he backtracks the basic inventions like bread making to its best origins. How the modern mass scale industrial production had ruined the basic essence of bread making. How some basic techniques were discarded to speed up the process but in doing so we were actually making a backtracking interms of the nutrition processing in its natural raw form. Its almost as if the importance of sour dough is rediscovered. The gluten scare maybe born of skipping this step.

The same journey with that of natural fermentation of cheese.

Its a delight to watch.

Helps you fall in love with cooking again

[siddharthwagal · 9/10 · 2 February 2019]

The show actually explains the history and different aspects of cooking. But more importantly it will make you go back into the kitchen. It helps you understand that how cooking as a process brings famalies together. Beautiful show. Must watch.

Not a cooking show but a doc on the cultural anthropology of cooking

[oneseat · 17 April 2016]

I always like the way Michael Pollan divides him musings into food categories that connect to cultural beliefs and historical discoveries, as he did, for instance in Botany of Desire. He did this in Cooked by devoting each episode to one of the ancient elements of fire, water, air, and earth. I won't say what foods and cultures they correspond to; discover the connections yourself. Allow Pollan to take you to unexpected places of cooking excellence and expertise.

I grew up in a large, somewhat stressed family that relied on prepared convenience food much of the time. I am talking Tater Tots, Hamburger Helper, fish sticks, pot pies, and canned chili, so I don't have great role models for cooking food that is fresh and natural, eco-friendly, and nutritious. Nevertheless, I aspire to do so.

If you are like me, you can't always cook an evening meal, but this series inspires me to try to do so a little more often.

What we are

[tfiretvsticks · 10/10 · 13 February 2020]

I truly believe we are what are signs are. Im a Gemini a Air sign and I love bread, my problem is I cant eat bread in America because it kicks up Acid Reflux. When Im back in England or France I don't have that problem, so from there I noticed it was the food. I started to cook more when I noticed my body was having problems with a lot of food in America. Everything is in a box or bag and that is not how food should be. If you have Acid Reflux or even Gerd, you have to change the way you eat and this show helps a lot. I also really would like to get some Frence style cheese from the nuns. Hopefully this can help someone.

Amazing!

[xkyrwk · 10/10 · 4 July 2021]

I have watched this series 4 times now, and each time I do, I learn something new. This is purely meant to remind everyone the beauty in cooking and how much it means to carry on cultural traditions. It is also an eye opener for big corporations and how much they have affected our lives.

This is not about politics, race, or any other nonsense one will try to create from this. Remove your bias, and open yourself up to being more comfortable in the kitchen. It will be life changing for you!

Provides some interesting info but thats it

[aslivelieceoglu · 6/10 · 20 November 2018]

I was hopeful to learn more about food and its origins and the linkages to the four elements but found that none of the episodes really had ang linkages to the titles of air, fire, earth, water. I think the whole content could have been given in an hour in total.

Have Netflix, Make Food Show

[gde-95158 · 4/10 · 15 January 2019]

More of the same. On the surface this idea had a lot potential. You quickly find that it was less of an Idea and more just a Title.

The bulk of this series is random information, plenty of holier-than-thou critiquing of modern technology, and a whole lot of "Stuff I Know" shoved at you by Michael Pollan. Not that any of it is wrong, it's just bland, smug and unnecessary.

Netflix clearly gets viewership out of these things, however. The most telling scene is a crossover bit with Simin Nosrat of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, another aimless Netflix doc that explains why everyone else is wrong.

Fine for casual viewing, but don't expect any epiphanies here.

Nothing New

[gp-clark · 5/10 · 29 February 2016]

Although this series starts with the interesting techniques of a group of Aborigines in Australia, there really is little new or interesting, or even that factual in this documentary and the show degenerates in to a smarmy, upper class, preach about the perils of not cooking properly. Yes people eat too much junk food, that much is clear, but to generate enough time of an hour cooking every day for a lot of people is just not realistic and the whole thing seems out of touch with reality. In an ideal world we'd all sit around with a source of a thousand, organic, fresh ingredients, but there are ways to do this without going back in to the past completely.

At times the narrator and presenter produces some of the most general sweeping statements about food culture in the world and often seems to think that "the West" actually means "America".

The food is pretty good to look at, but there's not a whole lot of interesting or different dishes in there. The presenter says a couple of times things like "Oh, you're doing what the French call 'XXXXX' and you didn't even know the name! That's fantastic!" which is just about as patronizing as you get.

It's a shame. The most interesting person in the show was probably the food expert, Harry Balzer. He actually had something interesting to say that was aside from all the misty-eyed, 'it used to be better a hundred years ago' jargon, patronizing, preachy advice etc that we're left with.

Good message, shame about the packaging and content.

G

[capitainelaitue · 1/10 · 9 May 2018]

This is the story of a narcissist heteronormative man who believes he holds the truth about the history of the human kind. From avoiding the realities of slavery in american history (supposedly, food brought black slaves and slave owners together in peace), to having the egocentrism to believe he can impose meat eating onto vegetarian AND have change their life, to perpetuating patriarchal male ideals as well as gender inequalities, to cultural appropriation, to assuming that meat is the main food in all culture, Pollan really succeeds in showing how narrow-minded and ignorant white privileged folks can be.

Tendentious

[jorgitovk · 1/10 · 26 September 2017]

The initial approaching is quite exciting, an anthropologist journey into the origins of the cuisine culture itself,... I like the idea.

Unfortunately you will find yourself socked by the prejudice male sexist speech of the author. All served with abundant ethnocentrism, and 'pearls' like "how barbecue's build our manhood" and worse. Very offensive for women, and an insult to the intelligence and critical thinking in general.

Don't watch if you love animals...

[bellebones-33752 · 1/10 · 27 January 2017]

Spoiler alert - I couldn't continue watching after an aboriginal woman snapped a giant lizards legs "so he wouldn't scratch" her while she carried him around. If you're going to eat the poor thing at least don't torture it. That scene made me want to vomit. It's disheartening because I was genuinely looking forward to learning about cooking on a meta scale, but I'd rather research on my own without having to view the shocking image of a woman being cruel. It seems that if our brains were so large and advanced that we would stop being so archaic. Anyone who holds reptiles especially close to their hearts will be devastated by the manner in which they are still tortured and killed - even now when this film was made in 2016.