Monday 31 August 2009

Beautiful Girls' Kitchen

TVB Jade, 9.30pm, Sundays
Like so many pathetic Western expats living in Hong Kong I can't speak Cantonese. I'm ashamed and embarrassed, yet never get off my arse to do anything about it. Yet despite my lack of the local lingo, often these days I find myself dragged in front of the TV to sit through the dribble that gets palmed off as TV here. Without even being able to understand the dialogue it's obvious that the acting is terrible (95% of the time by a former Miss Hong Kong contestant) and the plots simplistic (though probably no different to Neighbours, Home and Away or the other Western equivalents). However the one show that I do enjoy on local TV is TVB Jade's Beautiful Girls' Kitchen.
The show takes three female Hong Kong celebrities - read models, singers and actors - and throws them into a live kitchen where they must prepare series of dishes which are then judged by a group of blokes. It's often staged, terribly sexiest and totally politically incorrect, yet offers a whole world of entertainment. My favourite bit would have to be when the girls are required to butcher, clean and cook live seafood with, as you can imagine, often disastrous consequences.
Many would argue that it's a derogatory comment on women and while the attitude of the judges is often disgustingly patronising, I however think it's a more of a reflexion of Hong Kong society where very few of my generation can cook for themselves and the cult of celebrity is rampaging out of control. Beautiful Girls' Kitchen is so so wrong, but so so funny.

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