"Turkey, unlike chicken, has very elegant characteristics. It has more of a cache than chicken. Turkey is a delicacy, so it should be presented in such a way"
About this Quote
Todd English is doing what celebrity chefs have always done best: turning dinner into social signaling, then selling the audience the decoder ring. On the surface, he is defending turkey against its reputation as the bland, obligatory bird you endure once a year. Underneath, he is rebranding it as aspirational food by borrowing the language of luxury marketing: "elegant characteristics", "cache", "delicacy", "presented". None of those words describe flavor. They describe status.
The chicken/turkey contrast is the real engine here. Chicken is everyday utility, the default protein of weeknight competence. Turkey, in American culture, is either health-food austerity (deli slices, ground turkey) or ritual spectacle (Thanksgiving). English grabs the spectacle lane and doubles down: turkey deserves pageantry because it already arrives loaded with meaning. Calling it a delicacy isn’t a culinary argument so much as a permission slip to treat it like fine dining: prettier plating, better technique, maybe pricier ingredients around it.
The subtext is an old-school chef worldview dressed in TV-friendly diction: ingredients have hierarchies, and presentation is a moral responsibility. If the bird has "cachet", you honor it with performance. That’s also a neat way to elevate the chef’s role from cook to curator of taste - not just feeding people, but teaching them what deserves reverence.
In the post-Food Network era, that’s the hustle: make the familiar feel exclusive, then make exclusivity feel attainable. Turkey becomes less a meal than a moment you can stage.
The chicken/turkey contrast is the real engine here. Chicken is everyday utility, the default protein of weeknight competence. Turkey, in American culture, is either health-food austerity (deli slices, ground turkey) or ritual spectacle (Thanksgiving). English grabs the spectacle lane and doubles down: turkey deserves pageantry because it already arrives loaded with meaning. Calling it a delicacy isn’t a culinary argument so much as a permission slip to treat it like fine dining: prettier plating, better technique, maybe pricier ingredients around it.
The subtext is an old-school chef worldview dressed in TV-friendly diction: ingredients have hierarchies, and presentation is a moral responsibility. If the bird has "cachet", you honor it with performance. That’s also a neat way to elevate the chef’s role from cook to curator of taste - not just feeding people, but teaching them what deserves reverence.
In the post-Food Network era, that’s the hustle: make the familiar feel exclusive, then make exclusivity feel attainable. Turkey becomes less a meal than a moment you can stage.
Quote Details
| Topic | Cooking |
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