2018 Volume 68 Issue 7 Pages 72-89
NHK’s Kyou no Ryouri (Today’s Menu) is a long-running cooking program with a 60 year history. Now that people can easily find recipes via smartphones and buy prepared foods to save them from cooking, the program is somewhat being tested in terms of its raison d’être.The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute organized the NHK BUNKEN FORUM 2018 Presentations of Research Reports in March 2018, in which a symposium “Sixty-Year History of Kyou no Ryouri (Today’s Menu) and Prospects for the Future” was held, inviting Yoshiharu Doi, culinary researcher, Kensuke Suzuki, Associate Professor School of Sociology, Kwansei Gakuin University, and Akiko Kawamura, freelance television director involved in the production of Kyou no Ryouri over four decades. Reflecting on the history of the series, the panelists discussed the meaning of communicating the attractiveness of homemade cooking, the role played by the program, and how the series should evolve in the future.Mr. Doi articulated the role of the program should be to “help the viewers realize their potential of creating their own lives by themselves though handmade home cooking.” Prof. Suzuki commented on the internet distribution of recipes that the program had been putting effort into in recent years saying, “Its strength is to be able to provide content with highly public nature even if it won’t make much money.” Regarding the future of the series, Ms. Kawamura said, “Kyou no Ryouri gives viewers a sense of ease as they directly see the faces of the cooks, feel the warmth, and watch the content always at the same time. Keeping the stance that the program has not changed over 60 years may be the winning theory.”Where should this time-honored cooking program be heading with the changing times? This article reviews the discussion at the symposium to find clues to the future of the program from the 60-year history of the series and remarks of the panelists.
