According to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, the first episode of “Kyou No Ryouri” or (Today’s Kitchen) aired 65 years ago. The show has now entered the Guinness World Records as the world’s longest-running culinary program. Japanese television saturates its programs with cooking shows. Impossible to escape it. Even during prime time. No wonder one of them is crowned the oldest in the world. Since its launch in 1957, the show “Kyou No Ryouri” (Today’s Cuisine, in French) has presented 46,600 recipes according to calculations by public television channel NHK. Its first episode taught Japanese families how to cook a Western-style curry with oysters. At the time, one in four Japanese people did not have enough to eat.
That has changed a lot since then. The Japanese love good food, and television reflects this national obsession. Every day, NHK broadcasts cooking classes led by celebrities who taste dishes in ecstasy with the serious, diligent cook at their side. In more than half a century, “Kyou No Ryouri” has adapted to the economic situation. During the oil crises of the 1970s, she offered cheap recipes to a belt-tightening public. In the 1980s of prosperity, it generated an attraction to “great food”. The Japanese then spent a fortune in trendy restaurants. The Michelin guide made Tokyo the capital of world gastronomy. The 1980s were when women took to the workforce, the show focused on on-the-go meals, and began offering “men’s” recipes.
Rfi
Senegal
