Gordon Ramsay x 2

P. Ramsay uses pauses in his presentational style in a particularly effective way. Q. ‘let it sit (.) naturally (.) on top of the toasted croissant (4) twist (.)’ E. This quote shows how Ramsay is pausing quite considerably as he is delivering the salmon to the croissant. This task is not particularly difficult, however he uses the pauses to demonstrate how to twist the fish. The largest pause (4) has him show viewers how to do this. Ramsay uses the pause to give emphasis to this presentation point. This reinforces his ethos of putting presentation and quality of food over complexity of recipe or helping the viewer create the dish. P. If we compare Lam and Ramsay they initially seem to be poles apart in terms of their style. However, if we look closely at their style we see that both enjoy describing their food to the viewers. Q. Ramsay says: ‘it’s rich scrumptious and incredibly easy to do.’ Lam says: ‘Put a bit more if you want it you want it more richer (.) tastier.’ E. Ramsay is clearly more sophisticated with his use of vocabulary. He uses ‘scrumptious’ and stresses the middle syllable of ‘incredibly’ to emphasise the simplicity of his recipe. In contrast Lam uses interesting adjectives: ‘richer’ and ‘tastier,’ but she uses them in a non-standard way, betraying her cultural background and supposed lower class.

Nigella - She's a lady!

P. Nigella Lawson immediately contrasts herself to Jamie Oliver in the way she uses high vocabulary, such as her adjectives to describe food. She talks about: ‘lethally fierce birdseye chillies’ and ‘positively primeval prawns.’ E. Not many of the working classes would describe food in this way. This highlights how formal and high class Lawson is in comparison to the others. She uses alliteration and hyperbole to engage us through her language techniques. We understand that the chillies aren’t literally ‘lethal’ but we appreciate how she is trying to convey their heat. Similarly, with the alliteration she is playing with language but she is using the plosives to accentuate her lips in a pout. As the ‘Queen of food porn’ Nigella tries to make the food sound seductive, but also attracts an interested following who are attracted to her.

Jamie PQE

When Jamie Oliver introduces his ingredients he uses an upward inflexion at the end of the word ‘Basil’ to refer to the comedy sit-com character Basil Fawlty. He mimics the way Sybil Fawlty’s delivery which clues in the audience to how Oliver watches the programme, introducing an element of humour in his informal style. Oliver wants to engage an audience who is similar to his age and social background, and so this cultural reference helps him do it. Then when he says ‘Rosemary and beef are best friends’ he personifies the ingredients while passing on a culinary tip. His warm, colloquial style again engages us as an audience.

Cooking it up! 3rd PQE

P. Jamie Oliver and Nancy Lam, despite being from different cultural backgrounds, share a lot of similar linguistic features. They use: an informal style of presenting (which extends to their loose views on quantities), the use of non-standard English and use of colloquialisms. Q. ‘You’re catching me aren’t you?’ ‘You can use any pasta really (.) a little parmesan cheese (.) literally (.) that much’ E. Lam uses the rhetorical question to engage with her audience, she intimates that the audience understands her and her style of cooking. Similarly, Jamie shows us ’literally’ the amount of cheese to use. The pauses here show us he is demonstrating and rather than have an exact amount written in a cookbook, he uses the connection of a TV show to illustrate his ingredients to the audience. This is a paralinguistic technique that Lam uses at the beginning of the extract. Their friendly tone creates a positive atmosphere with us as the audience. (Personal response.)

A Lam PQE - TASTY!

P. In contrast to the other chefs, Lam is from a different culture and therefore English is her second language. The very correct pronunciation of Ramsey and Lawson contrasts directly with her. Q. “uh I’m not telling you it smells funny but it tastes THE BEST! You - er – no alternative.” E. Her first line in this quote is clearly non-standard English. The delivery is reinforced with her Oriental accent. Her accent really comes to the fore in terms of her fast paced and high pitched delivery, culminating in ‘THE BEST’ which is practically a squeak of delight. As an audience we may find her instructions are not as clear as the other chefs, but her emotion and delight in cooking keeps us engaged. She uses the superlative here to emphasise this. Another way she keeps us engaged in this quote is by using fillers. Her ‘uh’s and ‘er’s are her attempts to keep control and gives her some thinking time. Unlike the smooth delivery of Lawson, this is more like Oliver’s friendly and spontaneous delivery.

OMAM - Curley's Wife focus

Explore the ways one or two minor characters are presented in Of Mice and Men Characters are presented in two main ways in Of Mice and Men: through Steinbeck’s narrative and through other character’s comments and conversations. This allows the reader to view characters in different ways: through Steinbeck’s narrative, the reader can form more of their own opinion, whereas we are given a more biased perspective when detail is offered through other character’s conversations. It is notable that the majority of Curley’s Wife’s presentation is through other character’s comments and Crooks’ presentation comes from a combination of narrative and his own comments in chapter 4. Curley’s Wife is first presented to the reader through Candy’s comments. He tells George, after speking negatively about Curley, “Wait til you see Curley’s wife”, he then goes on to tell us she is “Purty…but” and “she’s got the eye”, summing up moments later that “I think Curley married… a tart”. The effect of this is that the reader immediately things negatively of her, before she has even entered the novella, especially as we are told of Curley’s violent nature and George warns Lennie to stay away from him, reminding him where he can hide if things, inevitably, go bad. The reader immediately associates Curley and his wife as negative characters. Steinbeck’s narrator outlines Curley’s Wife in chapter 2, moments after Candy’s biased and negative comments, through her physical description when we are told: “Both men glanced up, for the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in. she had full rouged lips…heavily made up. Her fingernails were red”. The fact she is presented as such, following on from Candy’s words, creates a negative impression on the reader – she has cut off the light and seems to have come uninvited. Added to this is her appearance in red, a colour associated with sex and promiscuity in women. It reinforces the idea that she is a tart and the reader automatically has a negative view of her. The reader’s opinion only changes when Steinbeck deliberately tries to create sympathy for her in Chapter 5 before she is killed, by letting us hear her life story and how badly she has been treated, to ensure the reader is satisfied that Lennie must be punished and his death is acceptable. That presentation of Curley’s Wife changes because we hear her speak, honestly, in her own words. The language is childlike and simplistic and we realise how sad and lonely her life is. She believes that she could have been a movie star because someone told her that and she lived her life in that belief – it shows her lack of education. We see how sad and lonely she is when she says “Well, I ain’t told this to nobody before. Maybe I oughtt’n to. I don’t like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella”. The effect on the reader is to realise that maybe she is misunderstood. Perhaps her attention seeking, viewed so negatively by Candy and the others, is actually a way to stem her loneliness. A similar trait is seen when Crooks speaks at length to Lennie in his room in Chapter 4. It is important that Steinbeck changes her presentation at this point, to allow the plot change to occur – the reader needs to be satisfied that Lennie must be punished to allow the ending to work – we then view George as doing the right thing, putting Lennie out of his misery, rather than killing him.

Exploring Lam's use of Language

P: Lam has a lively and enthusiastic style of presenting. In contrast to the other chefs she is the most animated in her tone. This really engages us as an audience and keeps our attention. Q: You can see it’s not rahahahahaa like firecrackers its cook a gentle cook a bing a bing a bing very very busy. E: In this quote Lam uses onomatopoeic-sounding phrases to describe the oil cooking the food. Her simile helps us picture what she is seeing in the pan, which is useful as the camera doesn’t pick this up. She also uses a lot of repetition to reinforce her point, the pan is ’very very’ busy. Her pace is quite rapid and so the repetition also helps the audience to keep up with the key points.

Spoken Language Study - Extra Transcript!

Nancy Lam cooks Prawns and French Beans Hi I’m Nancy Lam, I’m going to cook (2) Prawns, French Beans and Coconut – imagine the taste! Ahhh! This is my fresh prawns shelled and de-vein you must de-vein your prawns. Huh, this is what’s called healthy veg (.) VEG (.) French beans delicious (.) blood chah is one of our pastes make with prawns but it’s – uh – uh I’m not telling you it smells funny but it tastes THE BEST! You - er – no alternative. This is gangan and this is my red and green chilli. And my petitie petite ah red onion my petite petitie red onion create the taste of it. And my coconut. Don’t put too much if you think it’s unhealthy. Put a bit more if you want it you want it more richer (.) tastier. You tell me I’m a good cook. Tell me and you see what you get. Mmmmmmwah! Hahaha. You catching me aren’t you? Montage of chopping. Fill your frying pan not too hot not too cold just heat enough for the oil cos this is not a stir fry (2) this is just a – a it’s almost like a stew it’s almost like a ere er umm what you call it? Er eree a stew er er a stir fry with a sauce. Your chillies your onions. And you can smell. You can see it’s not rahahahahaa like firecrackers its cook a gentle cook a bing a bing a bing very very busy. And what you do, you stir it in. Oh I wish you can smell, I really really wish you can smell. Now you can turn the fire a bit higher. You know why?