ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the way instruction modulated through information into advice and infotainment with the rise of lifestyle as a key term organising the neo-liberal subject's enterprise of the self. Instruction comes primarily when viewers are directly told by presenters how to cook a recipe or choose a suitable plant. Food programme presenters come from two usually distinct worlds: food writing and food production, mainly running restaurants, but also the more female-friendly catering and running test kitchens. Authenticity is the worry of the outsider trying to find the expert with 'natural knowledge'. Makeover programmes are less commonly produced these days, even if they are still regularly to be seen on specialist lifestyle channels. While the lifestyle programmes that are the concern of this chapter very actively encourage consumption, they often do so by tying them to ethical injunctions. The structure of the fashion focused appearance makeovers requires extensive sections of interaction between presenter and the ordinary participants/recipients.
