Writing in the Kitchen

Name: Writing in the Kitchen
Rating: 3 (1 reviews)
ISBN: 9781626742109

By David A. Davis & Tara Powell &

Publisher Description

"This collection of scholarly essays examines southern food as a unique cultural phenomenon, specifically examining its relation to literature. Recent analyses of the South's food have tended to emphasize the profligacy of the region's cooking at the end of the twentieth century (e.g., Paula Deen), but the genesis of southern cooking lies more in a focus on imaginatively using scraps or less-desirable parts of an animal to fill impoverished tables. One essay describes Thomas Jefferson defending contour plowing to preserve topsoil from erosion. Another examines the interplay of Native Americans, European colonials, and African slaves on foodways. Particularly compelling are analyses of how different, yet complementary, literary representations of white cooks (intellectual, analytic) and black cooks (instinctual, emotive) mirror the South's slave heritage. One contributor links vendor's outcries in New Orleans's markets to poetry."

--Mark Knoblauch, Booklist

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Writing in the Kitchen Reviews

3.0

Sarah McPherson

Created almost 12 years ago

“Check out this review, and others like it, at my book blog, http://bookmarksandcoffeemugs.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/in-which-i-review-something-completely-different-a-book-of-essays/ I have a confession to make: I have been absolutely dreadful lately about keeping up with my Netgalley account. I have several books that I need to read, but I've put them aside for library books, or books I've won on Goodreads, and The Office reruns on Netflix. So, my apologies to my Netgalley account. To remedy that, I stayed up very late last night to make headway into a book called "Writing in the Kitchen: Essays on Southern Literature and Foodways." I know that sounds dreadfully boring, and yes, some of it was, but I actually did learn quite a bit from what I read. "Foodways" is not really a word I've ever used, or heard, or read, so I had to look it up. It's basically a term used to describe an intersection of food in culture, traditions, and history. It's why we eat what we eat, and what it means (thank you to Google for that great definition). This term is used concerning Southern food in that Southern food is comprised of Native American, European and African cooking practices, vegetables, and flavors. Southern food is something I'm extremely familiar with, even though Texas is not technically Southern, but these essays put them in a new light for me. It talks about food as a racial and class symbol, as a commodity, as a luxury, as a metaphor, and more. Plus,the descriptions of Southern dishes set me off for a humongous craving for homemade fried chicken, mashed potatoes and cornbread (with generous helpings of gravy). Yum. As this is a compilation of essays, the topics are extremely varied, from Thomas Jefferson and the necessity of reading in the Agrarian South to Eating Poetry in New Orleans to Reading Food and Class in Appalachian Literature. Though I didn't recognize many of the books (which was very humbling), I was glad that Gone with the Wind and The Help were. Now I have more books to add to my reading list! Here are some of parts of the book that caught my eye: "The prevailing trend in American popular culture, extending from nineteenth-century accounts of plantation groaning tables overloaded with regional delicacies to Paula Deen's much mocked obsession with butter, has been to associate southern food with abundance and extravagance, but the reality of southern food is that it is based more on ingenuity born of privation and necessity." "Food is a text upon which the history and values of the southern people are written." "Bremer described a scene of "pickle persecution." A guest is offered and declines pickles. Another guest observes her neighbor's plate is pickle-less. Pickles are offered again, and once more refused. Just when the guest is "waiting for some reply interesting to you," a servant appears "and with horror you behold pickles ready to be put upon your plate..."" If you're interested in food, or Southern literature, or just think this would be interesting, i would totally recommend this to you. You can skip the essays you're not interested in, or just read bits and pieces here and there, and it would still be enjoyable.”