Chiffonade, I know what you mean about cooking shows. I was delighted to find them on PBS, and when we got Food TV last December I found myself in seventh heaven!
I always thought I had a slightly warped fascination with food, and once sought help for what I had considered an unhealthy fascination. Now I know I'm as perfectly sane as most of Chef Talk
.
Grocery stores in cities I visit are tourist attractions for me. Menus at interesting restaurants deserve lengthy perusal as I "taste" the flavors in my mind. Cookbooks are for reading like novels. Conversations with people I've just met usually include the question, "Do you like to cook?" Recipe inquiries are mandatory if the answer is even close to "Yes". Rummage sales are for seeking out kitchen tools. Among my most cherished mementoes of my grandmother are her wooden potato masher, wooden spoon, graniteware saucepan and large breadboard from 1910. (Not that I don't like her gold pin, but it gets less use.)
You get the idea.