Screening How You Eat
The Age
Tuesday October 24, 2006
A new cooking show pits a nutritionist against a chef who chooses flavour over health. By Leanne Tolra.
GARY Mehigan admits his generous waistline could be the first casualty.But as the Melbourne boy and classically trained chef battles it out with Sydney nutritionist and author Janella Purcell on a new cooking show, he'll hold tight to his scepticism and his right to choose flavour over health.Mehigan and Purcell are the embodiment of the modern cook's conscience - the voices in our heads that tell us to use less oil or more butter; more vegetables or a bigger cut of steak.In Channel Seven's cooking show, Good Chef Bad Chef, the pair challenge each other to cook Japanese dishes, pizza, organic chicken, steak, hangover cures and a vegan dish.Purcell, author of Elixir, How To Use Food as Medicine, favours fish and vegetable dishes that use organic ingredients. Mehigan, chef and owner at Richmond's Fenix and the Maribyrnong Boathouse, is a steak-with-bearnaise-sauce chef of the old school."I'm comfortable with how I cook," Mehigan says. "But my struggle with my weight shows the contrast between what I want to eat and what I should eat."I'm quietly sceptical of Janella's message. I mean, brown rice syrup instead of sugar, come on. But there is change creeping in to what people want to eat in a restaurant too - requests for gluten-free, wheat-free and the more faddish carb-free meals."There is no point fighting it. I think I'll be the one to give ground on this show, but people still want special-occasion cooking and they want it to taste fantastic."So is it just another cooking show? Or does it say something about our changing lifestyles?Purcell and Mehigan, who had not met before the show, slide into relaxed banter as they challenge each other's cooking principles. Each has previous television credentials: Mehigan on What's Cooking?, Fresh and Ready Steady Cook and Purcell as naturopath and food editor on The Today Show and Foxtel's Get a Life.The half-hour format allows them to explore individual versions of dishes that use similar ingredients, leaving the viewer to choose sides. Jobs are shared amicably and there's some entertaining footage of Mehigan's skilful slicing and dicing, while Purcell's messages about food as medicine are delivered with refreshing simplicity."The things I cook are one-pot dead-easy dishes," Purcell says. "The hardest things to source might be some of the Japanese ingredients. But you don't have to use difficult techniques or spend hours in the kitchen."I'm only saying be good most of the time, maybe for you that's 60/40 or 70/30. You should be able to eat anything sometimes, if you eat well most of the time."And when it comes to waistlines, she battles just as hard as the rest of us to keep her weight down.Good Chef Bad Chef screens on Seven, Monday to Friday at 3pm, starting next week.
© 2006 The Age