BOOK REVIEW
KITCHEN CULTURE: FIFTY YEARS OF FOOD FADS
Gerry Schremp
(Pharos Books - 1991)
Buy this book:
Kitchen Culture: Fifty Years of Food Fads
 Dictionary.com
defines the word "fad" as a "fashion that is taken up with
great enthusiasm for a brief period of time; a craze."
Many of the food and cooking trends described in Kitchen
Culture: Fifty Years of Food Fads, could be described as
just that. Molded salads and fondue pots are just two
examples of things that were all the rage and then fizzled out after a period of
time.
Many other trends, such as cooking with convenience foods,
television cooking shows and buying water in a bottle have
not only endured over the years, but are now mainstream.
The author, a former reporter for Life Magazine and editor
for Time/Life's Foods of the World, covers five decades of
food and American society.
The book begins with the frugalities and rationing caused by
wartime in the 1940s and ends in the decade of the 1980s, an
era when the focus on physical fitness began and conspicuous
spending was the norm.
Kitchen Culture is divided into five sections, with each one
devoted to a single decade.
Each section examines the social
changes going on in the U.S. and how the eating, cooking and
shopping habits of the American cook and consumer were
affected. Bits of history about everything from canned soup
and appliances, to supermarkets and restaurants are touched
upon, intermingled with recipes that were popular during
that particular decade.
There are many captioned black and
white illustrations throughout the text.
Kitchen Culture is both entertaining and educational. Whether
you're a foodie or not, you're sure to enjoy this book.
After reading how drastically life in the kitchen changed
during that fifty year span, it's interesting to reflect on
how much more it's changed in the fifteen years since the
book was published.
A sample section, "Cooking on Television", follows:
"European cuisines grew in popularity with the help of cooks
like Julia Child. Her book, Mastering the Art of French
Cooking, written in collaboration with Simone Beck and
Louisette Bertholle, appeared in 1961. Child's television
show, which debuted in 1963 and ran until 1973, aimed to
take the mystery out of preparing French foods--and
succeeded, largely due to Child's charm and her seemingly
casual approach to the subject. The show as an instant hit.
When Joyce Chen went on television a few years later to
demonstrate Chinese cooking techniques, she was sometimes
referred to as the "Chinese Julia Child."
In 1969, a handsome young chef from Australia, Graham Kerr,
went on television as the Galloping Gourmet. Unlike the
Child show, which was prepared for public broadcasting and
shown in the evening, Kerr's was a daytime show with
commercial sponsors. His inventiveness and élan earned him a
contract for $4 million for three and a half years. It also
entranced viewers, who were devastated when he left
television in 1973."
Fast forward to 2006 where an entire cable channel,
The Food Network, provides 24/7 programming devoted entirely to cooking and food.
Eating out was once thought to be a treat and now it's
considered a way of life. Supermarket shelves are filled
with tens of thousands of products, and if you don't feel
like going out, you can order your groceries online. Fresh
fruits and vegetables are no longer seasonal items, they're
available from all over the world the year round.
Today's cook has more choices than ever. And you can read
about how much of it started within these pages.
This is an out-of-print book, but it can still be found in
several used book venues. A couple of sources are
here and
the link shown below.
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