Julia Child, unlike Rachael Ray, never appeared scantily clad in For Him magazine. Jacques Pepin never needed a catchphrase ("BAM!" anyone?)

Granted, I don't think anyone would really want to see the somewhat masculine Child in a bikini, and Pepin's French accent doesn't have the same gusto as Emeril Lagasse's New Orleans twang. What really separates people like Lagasse and Ray, two of The Food Network's biggest stars, from Child and Pepin is that the latter didn't need sex or shticks to sell their shows; the food did it for them.

During the past 10 years or so, America's obsession with food as a form of entertainment has skyrocketed. The Food Network, which started in 1993 and today has 82.5 million subscribers, is at the forefront of this trend. When the station started, its shows were not unlike the classic cooking shows on PBS — straightforward recipe instruction. As the channel gained popularity, it shifted its goals; now many of its shows are purely entertainment. Most aren't even cooking shows, and those that are seem to have more in common with daytime talk shows than anything relating to cooking.

The network's demographics reflect this as well: Surprisingly, 18-54 year old men—not traditionally active in the kitchen—make up half of targeted viewers.

Of course, The Food Network is not solely responsible for this Lt. Ehren Watada speaks in front of a packed auditorium on Tuesday afternoon. His lecture focused on his experiences and beliefs in the current Iraq war. phenomenon. A surge in food magazines and expanded food coverage in many other magazines has only piqued the public's interest further.

The biggest change these shows and magazines have made to food is that they overly romanticize it; they make it into something to be admired and purchased, but not made. The obvious reason for food — that is, to eat it, in case you've forgotten — is not the goal of food media.

The apex of this romanticizing is the celebrity chef. Thanks mostly to the Food Network, chefs have become just as sought after celebrities as athletes or movie stars. The celebrity chef has become a career on its own. Indeed, many of these chefs now live entirely off their fame.

So what does this obsession mean for our country's future in food? In the long term, this idea of food detached from preparation could be the downfall of cooking.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite shows was The Frugal Gourmet. I loved to cook and experiment in the kitchen, and even when I was younger, I would try to emulate host Jeff Smith's recipes. It was shows like this and those of Pepin and Child that inspired me to start cooking, and launched my interest in food.

When The Food Network premiered, I was excited. But I lost interest when it became more about food than cooking. As its popularity grew and more people started randomly throwing around words like "gourmet" in all the wrong places, I realized all it was doing was dumbing-down America's knowledge of food.

She may not have been pretty or "cool," but you're more likely to find me sitting on a tropical beach with a bikini-clad Julia Child, sipping wonderful French onion soup from a glass with a paper umbrella than drooling over the latest Rachael Ray centerfold.

Reach Intermission columnist Jeremy Konick at jeremykonick@thedaily.washington.edu.