The glamour of food has made it something of a class leveler in America, a fact that many of these shows implicitly celebrate.

Like the city's subway system, the vast and majestic Central Park, an 843-acre rectangle of open space in the middle of Manhattan, is a great class leveler - which is exactly what it was envisioned to be.

The oyster, that great class leveler, made Downing an admired, influential and wealthy man.