How MasterChef Junior's Dara Yu Feels TV Glamorizes The Culinary Industry
As avid viewers of TV shows and video content surrounding food, the culinary industry, celebrity chefs, and the inner workings of different kitchens, we know how easy it is to get sucked into the specific way the field is presented on television. Dara Yu, the now grown-up runner-up of "MasterChef Junior" Season 1 has some thoughts on the way TV shows about food happen to glamorize the culinary world.
Since appearing on the show in 2014 at just 12-years-old, Yu has continued pursuing a culinary career and it seems like her future as a chef only continues to be bright. Not only has she created culinary content as The Bow Girl for her successful YouTube channel as well as content for Dreamworks TV, Yu has also worked on the frontlines in high-end restaurant kitchens in both New York and Los Angeles, and she has plans to open her own restaurant and café in the future (via The Recipe).
With her highly televised introduction to the culinary world broadcast on Food Network coupled with actual experience in the industry now under her belt, Yu is reflecting on her career and the role of television in the food world.
Dara Yu says there's more to being a chef than what you see on TV
In a recent interview with Huffington Post, Dara Yu emphasized how everything seen on TV, even on a cooking show, is subjective and not completely true to reality. As she told the outlet, "With television, everything should be taken with a grain of salt. I didn't see the show until it premiered and I think that editing has a lot to do with how it turned out, how you are perceived on TV."
Yu also detailed how cooking on TV shows is glamorized compared to working in a real, functioning restaurant kitchen. As viewers, we only see a specific part of the industry in these televised series, whereas taking on a career as a chef is a lot of hard work, and that part doesn't always get shown to the public. "When you are working in a restaurant, you are working 12- to 16-hour days and you are in the kitchen every single day. It's the grind. You really have to have passion and drive to do what chefs do — and be a certain amount of crazy to want to do it," she added in the article.
Yu though recognizes her experience on "MasterChef Junior" was a non-traditional way for her to get into the culinary profession, and she is thankful for the opportunities to work with top chefs and for the other doors that have been opened to her because of the exposure.