Human Relations Area Files: Food Anthropology on TelevisionToday, popular television shows featuring ethnographic culinary adventures bring food and film together for the enjoyment, entertainment, and enlightenment of foodies and anthropologists alike. While most of us do not have the opportunity to travel around the world and experience various food cultures, we have in recent years been presented with a new spin on “reality TV” – ethnographic forays into cultures and cuisines in which the narrator travels the globe to live among diverse groups of people, learning about their lifeways and historic culinary traditions, cooking and eating side-by-side with local experts, and sharing observations and reflections. This sounds a lot like classic ethnography as practiced by professional anthropologists, but the hosts of these television shows tend to be trained chefs, rather than social scientists. Nonetheless, the popularity of these shows attests to the enduring appeal of culinary adventure.