November 4, 2021
Instead of listening to the rest of the first interview, I decided to pull a couple of books from my food life research collection off of the shelf and take a look at what I had marked… One of the first books I read had/has the lovely title (taken from an old Pillsbury ad, which makes the ‘warm fuzzies’ it gives me quite suspect, really) of Something From the Oven, with the subtitle: Reinventing dinner in 1950’s America. Spot on. My childhood.
The introduction poses this question:
“Do women like to cook? That is, are there any good reasons to cook from scratch, apart from habit, sentiment and the family budget? The question had never emerged before, but, suddenly, thanks to all the new products, there was a glimmer of space between women and cooking, just enough to invite reflection. Do we like to cook? Is it important to cook? Before the question could even be asked, it was answered with a powerful ‘Not anymore.’ The ones speaking up so convincingly were the advertisers.”
That is, the handmaidens of the Processed Food Industrial Complex (PFIC).
Obviously, the question of whether men like to cook was moot at that time in sexist his-story. I must say, it was delightful to interview a number of men who very much like to cook!
This paragraph from Laura Shapiro’s 2004 book, encapsulates many of the primary topics that I was/am seeking to explore, which became questions embedded in my interviews and research.
Do you like to cook?
Are there any good reasons to cook from scratch?
What role do habit and sentiment play in one’s food life story?
Is it important to cook?
And how was/has American food culture (been) influenced or controlled by the PFIC?
Think on it.
food life story 