Storytelling and synthetic personalization in television cooking shows

•Storytelling in cooking shows establishes authority for the chef.•Storytelling in cooking shows creates intimacy between the show host and audience.•Storytelling in cooking shows constructs an “ordinary” celebrity chef.

Television cooking shows provide a platform for discussion about food, with storytelling emerging as a way to share and interpret experiences. Within the last twenty years, interest in food has soared with television channels devoted exclusively to food and cooking, nationally and internationally, reaching millions of viewers. Entertaining and educating simultaneously, cooking show hosts weave storytelling in recipe telling, engaging the viewer and creating an “ordinary” persona. Drawing on Labov's narrative theory and Fairclough's synthetic personalization, the paper analyzes the formal structure of stories and the legitimation strategies of amateur celebrity chefs within the discursive framework of the cooking show event. Specifically, storytelling in instructional cooking shows from the Food Network provides a resource for cooking show hosts to construct themselves as authorities in cooking but at the same time as equals to the viewers.