Food Glorious: Food Anthology

The text is a transcript from the filming of BBC TV programme 'Nigella Express', intended to instruct the viewer in how to create a "good breakfast" in the form of “one of the world’s best hangover cures” – “spicy scrambled eggs” with tortillas. The context of production is that this text, as a transcript, details the speech and actions in the TV show and shows the presenting style in a way that allows an understanding to be given – and may allow for analysis of techniques used in an easier way.

The show itself would also be useful for Nigella itself as it may allow her to create a recognisable ‘brand image’ which would help to sell her recipe books. The primary purposes of the text is to inform and persuade people to make the recipe; with a secondary purpose of entertaining the receiver.

The context of reception is that people will read this transcript for the purpose of looking into the show in more depth; perhaps analysing the presentation style Nigella uses etc.

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Overall, the context of reception for the television show itself is that people may watch it due to an admiration of Nigella or as they like her bubbly personality and the way she tries to make cooking fun, or simply as they saw the show while looking through channels.

The text presents food as something luxurious, but also simple and easy to make; as something that you need to eat but that you can also love the “softness of this golden egg against the crispness of the golden tortilla” – this juxtaposition of opposite ideas helps to create an interesting effect, and may make readers more likely to try the recipes as they are shown as having a delicious end product.

Lexical fields are used, such as words focused on the superiority of a meal such as “ultimate” and “best”.

Nigella is shown to be both authoritative (“chop the chillies”) and a bubbly, fun character although this incessant cheerfulness may be irritating to some viewers. It is intended to add some fun to a show which truthfully is part of an overcrowded market – there are many cooking shows and you have a wide choice of which one you wish to watch. The register is relatively low, with informal lexis and colloquial language such as “I’m gonna” allowing Nigella to appear understanding of her viewers and trying to appeal to them on their own level.

You are encouraged to share Nigella’s views through her use of personal anecdotes which show her level of experience and the cheery way she repeatedly exalts the food which she is creating, mentioning her “love” for it numerous times! The text begins with an introduction from Nigella about her view on breakfasts which leads gently into the recipe, trying to create a more conversational and relaxed tone: “this breakfast is one of the world’s best hangover salves. ” The meal is prepared in chronological order, with details of the visuals seen at each stage presented in parenthesis (e. . “close up of Nigella chopping the ingredients”) allowing readers of the transcript to understand both the visuals presented to the camera and the speech used. The text ends with details of Nigella eating the meal she has prepared, to highlight it’s ‘tastiness’, the audience should feel more confident in the quality of the meal once they have seen the finished product and a famous chef enjoying it (though this may just be for show) – this ending is intended to help persuade further viewing also as a perfect end to the show.

Grammatical features are less important in this text, due to the layout of the transcript – it is grammatically incorrect in many places and there is a focus on conveying the meaning of the text exactly, as a written recording of spoken word it is clear that it is less important to be exact than to be interesting and appear natural. Modality is not used, there is no direct comparison between the meal created and any other – aside from the fact that is referred to as the best hangover cure, a statement which is extremely vague.

More importance is placed on enjoying the food and the quality of the meal, than how it compares to any other; this may be due to the fact that Nigella regularly presents a cooking show and wishes to present a trustworthy image rather than over exaggerating the credentials and quality of each and every way in a way that would be wholly unbelievable. Not every meal can be the best, after all.

The text is written in the present tense due to the show’s ‘live’ set up – the meal is prepared on screen and therefore it is key to make it appear as if it is incredibly easy to prepare, and seem as if people will be cooking alongside, therefore present tense appears the most natural. “Chop the chillies. ” The tense helps to highlight also how casual the text is supposed to appear, “I’m just making it because I love it” as if Nigella has chosen the meal based solely on how amazing it is, and is excited for the cooking that lies ahead.