Is Locavorism for Rich People Only?

Preserving Time in a Bottle (or a Jar)

Eating in the 20th Century

Shallots Web

The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Nook and Pantry

Also: Gourmet has been cancelled by Conde Nast.

“This is a book for the servantless American cook who can be unconcerned on occasion with budgets, waistlines, time schedules, children’s meals, the parent-chauffer-den-mother syndrome, or anything else which might interfere with the enjoyment of producing something wonderful to eat.” (page 23)

That’s Miss Child in the foreword to Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Volume One), and the entire notion of it seems dead and gone away, today.  While we’ve been spending less and less time cooking, we’ve gotten increasingly interested in the gourmet.  But this interest in the gourmet is seemingly slowly being replaced by an interest in the organic, in the obscure, in the creative.  I don’t mean to imply that any of that is inherently bad, but it we’re now willing to sacrifice that “something wonderful to eat” in the name of something interesting to eat.

“Certainly one of the important requirements for learning how to cook is that you learn how to eat. If you don’t know how an especially fine dish is supposed to taste, how can you reproduce it? Just like becoming an expert in wine–you learn by drinking it, the best you can afford–you learn about great food by finding the best there is, whether simple or luxurious. Then you savor it, analyze it, and discuss it with your companions, and you compare it with other experiences.” (page 15)

With the advent of celebrity chefs and their restaurants (Emril’s, just ’round the corner), we may have lost something in our striving for particular foods that are “better” (I have heard people in Whole Foods discuss that their nutritionist or dietician has told them only to eat Pacific salmon, and by no means are they to eat Atlantic salmon – and in the absence of the former, they settle for no salmon at all).  It might be the case that bread and butter is just as good as the latest creation on Top Chef, but amongst gourmets (though there is hope amongst foodies, who are billed as a somewhat less patrician group of gourmets – people who could be quite interested in finding the BEST bread and butter out there – though still, I think something is lost here – things needn’t always be the best, or even particularly special, to be lovely and wonderful), there can be acquiescence to this point.

This doesn’t deal with that.  It’s from the New York Times.  I read a lot of the New York Times.  Sometimes the things I read have to do with food… sometimes they even have to do with cooking.  So that’s how this kind of entry gets here.  Because I read it, and it’s vaguely relevant, and I’m treating this more as a collection of thoughts than as some kind of linear/pointed… thing.  Words fail me, clearly… so the remainder of this entry should be (some kind of) interesting.

Fast Food Even Before Fast Food : by John T. Edge, published September 29, 2009

I’d never heard of the pepperoni roll, but apprently it’s a appalachian-West Virginian cullinary curiosity.   The pepperoni roll seems to be some take on stromboli, but having not had one, I can’t judge that properly.  In any case, it is pervasive in the state, eaten by glass factory workers and country club golfers alike.  It was created around the turn of the century in response to massive influx of Italians brought in to mine for coal.  These rolls are easily handheld, perfect for eating on the go (or, originally, while in a mine), and are similar in shape and size to the Hot Pocket.  These pepperoni rolls vary in quality from mass-produced to artisan quality, but all are used in approximately the same fashion: some are eaten with peppers, some with provolone, others are piled with American condiments and chili, and many are subject to some kind of strange combination of all of these things (and more, one baker was quoted as saying “My rolls can take anything. I’ll split them open and pile anything on. I’ll put ice cream in the son-of-a-gun if somebody wants one that way.”

This is the kind of regional good that I would posit is being lost today with pre-prepared, pre-packaged foods.  It’s hard to say, because I haven’t read anything (as of yet) specifically about regional foods, but it would seem natural to assume that the changes in shipping and the ease of travel (and moving) in today’s America would affect the food, and not only in the way that means you can still buy tomatos in January.

This article wasn’t specifically relevant to my topic, but it did bring up something that I otherwise would likely only have considered briefly and soon forgotten about…

“Conventional wisdom has it that America is in the midst of an unprecedented revolution …
- that popular attitudes … are changing in ways not dreamed of before. Conventional wisdom also tends to conceptualize this revolution in linear terms; ever so gradually attitudes have been shifting, and as luck would have it, those of us alive today are able to see everything come to fruition.”

That is, I must keep in mind the idea that perhaps cooking has not changed linearly – I have not found anything to support the idea that we haven’t been steadily moving more and more towards cooking less and less (and have found quite a bit to support the idea that that is, in fact, what we’re doing), but I will no longer take it for granted.  This is probably a fairly obvious and platitudinous point, but if it is, it’s at least a bit counterintuitive.

Professor Goldman commented:

“Colloquially at least, our food choices are now entirely accepted as being an integral expression of who we are, what we believe in and what we value.  Public opinion research in the United States, for example, shows that vegetarians are thought to eat broccoli, quiche, brown rice and avocado sandwiches and are assumed to be anti-war and pro-drugs and to drive imported cars.  Gourmets, in contrast, are expected to favour caviar, oysters and French-roast coffee and are regarded as liberal, drug-taking sophisticates.  Fast-food eaters, on the other hand, are generally considered to be religious, conservative and liable to wear polyester” (page 15)

The article focuses on the intersection of television and cooking – it juxtaposes Julia Child with many of today’s Food Network personalities, and discusses how Julia Child was a pioneer not only by having a cooking show, but also because she seemed to enjoy and love the work of cooking, something that Pollan charges is rarely the case with today’s celebrity chefs and cooking show personalities.  Later, Pollan writes about the decline in domestic cooking, and I’m beginning to question this, partially because I’m currently reading Kitchen Secrets by Frances Short, which challenges many of the popularly held assumptions about the decline of family dinners and cooking (but more on that in a later post).  Still, his driving point seems mostly to be the idea that we have shifted from instructional cooking shows to shows where people cook in a fashion we could never hope to – and then we watch them eat.  He makes the point that there are shows devoted almost solely to eating (a few minutes spent with a chef, then on to eating), but even those that are nominally devoted to cooking exhibit such skills that are relatively useless – not only are they superfluous and showy, but the shows are edited in such a way as to make it impossible to gain any useful knowledge or tips about cooking (at least in Primetime).

Clearly this article deals with only one very small facet – and I’m not claiming that it’s enormously useful in my investigation, but I am claiming that it’s what finally pushed me over the edge and into this topic.

In any case, the index-card I wrote said something to the effect of:

Food and cooking in the U.S.: Food and cooking are seemingly often ignored aspects of culture in the U.S., perhaps because they are viewed as necessary.  I’d like to explore why this is true in the U.S. and how it came to be the case, looking at the transitions from ubiquitous farms and “victory gardens” to the dominance of agribusiness and synthetic foods.

Having since reconsidered what I’m interested in in this arena, I’m leaning more towards examining the social and societal importance of domestic cooking in the United States.  I’m not too far into this yet, so I’ll start with some sources I’ve either already read, or that are sitting on my desk, awaiting my perusing:

Kitchen Secrets: The Meaning of Cooking in Everyday Life, by Frances Short (2006)

From Betty Crocker to Feminist Food Studies: Critical Perspectives on Women and Food, edited by Arlene Voski Avakian and Barbara Haber (2005)

Edible Ideologies: Representing Food & Meaning, edited by Kathleen LeBesco and Peter Naccarato (2008)

Family Life in 20th Century America, by Marilyn Coleman, Lawrence H. Ganong and Kelly Warzinik (2007)

Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch, by Michael Pollan (July 29, 2009)

In addition to this list, I have considered some better-known titles, such as The Jungle, Omnivore’s Dilemma, Fast Food Nation, and so on… I had thought of them initially, before I narrowed my interests in the general topic: I am not sure if I shall still be pursuing them, but if anyone has strong feelings on the matter (or any other suggestions), please share.  I have also found a number of films that might be relevant, but I plan to look into them a bit more before posting about them.