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Since the early 1990s, an exponential increase in the demand for foreign TV content has occurred to fill the ever-growing libraries of new speciality channels (and later digital platforms). This process has boosted demand for the translation and adaptation of reality TV series, thus paving the way in Italy, traditionally a dubbing country, for the rise of a new hybrid form of audio-visual translation (AVT), ‘simil-sync’, deemed more cost-effective than dubbing and more user-friendly than subtitling for the local audience. Factual programming has become one of the most successful components of many themed channels, reshaping both Italian television and the national AVT scenario.

Through an examination of British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s cookery TV series Jamie’s Great Italian Escape(Fresh One Productions, Channel 4, 2005), and comparing the original version to the Italian subtitled version of the show this article sets out to investigate a case of cultural translation in which Italian cuisine is adapted for a UK TV audience and then retranslated for the Italian audience whose dishes were originally the source of inspiration for the programme. To provide control parameters, the article also considers a few key passages from the original cookbook accompanying the TV series and contrasts them to the Italian translation. The article will address in particular the topic of how culture-specific contents of the Italian culinary tradition are adapted for UK audiences and readership and how they are then conveyed back via subtitles and written translation to the Italian speaking viewers/readers, who do not share the cultural and the linguistic background of the source text recipients, yet are very familiar with the cultural contents presented in the show. The article argues that power structures between a centre and a periphery of the media industry are relevant for the success and reception of cookery programmes and of their translations. As Italian food culture is presented to the world via a UK perspective, one further line of argument of the article is that this might influence how Italian culinary tradition is perceived by the rest of the world. The article argues that unveiling the power dynamics involved in what is usually considered material for Television Studies or Cultural Studies may have important implications for Translation Studies as well.

Food, the cornerstone of life, lies at the heart of our cultural identity. Vital for our health and well-being, our awareness of its economic, cultural and social significance - how the language of food and related practices travel across languages and cultures cannot be disregarded. Despite a rapidly expanding market for translation of food related texts: cookery books and TV programmes, magazines and food labels, to name just a few, and despite fast-pace evolving eating habits and phenomena, the relationship between food, culture and translation remains under-researched. By bringing these issues to light, this special issue aims to be a truly interdisciplinary reference work that brings together expert scholars writing on food related topics from a translational and intercultural perspective.