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Food History Again but now Feminist

2018-10-05

Something from the Oven

Commute Reading

I went through this book earlier in the week. Super fascinating book; runs in contrast to Harvey Levenstein and focuses on the agency of the ordinary home cook (as opposed to the industrial food processors). The author focuses on source material in cookbooks (particularly community cookbooks for charity) and advice columns in order to infer what the cook at home did.

Each chapter takes a particular representative popular figure (Betty crocker, for instance) and discusses their influence on cooking, along with reactions, etc.

I would definitely recommend; this is probably the best book in terms of careful in-kitchen sourcing I've read so far. I'll probably borrow her other books from the Seattle Public Library.