Men could benefit by reading this historical work

books:


	• Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America Laura Shapiro, 2005 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Just kept on reading........

This book isn't just about cooking and food - it's as much about living (and mighty interesting living at that). I'm not a cook and just don't understand why some people become consumed with the various ways of food preparation. Don't get me wrong, I want my food to taste good, anyway.......I have had a fascination with another food writer, M.F.K. Fisher, because of her travel adventures not her cooking,and while googling Fisher came upon a reference to Shapiro who talks about her in this book so bought it from Amazon and couldn't put it down from the first paragraph. I know I didn't review this book but just had to put my 2 cents in. Shapiro really has a way with words!

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Fascinating

I savored this book, and didn't want it to end. I thought the subtitle did the book a bit of a disservice: "Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America," making it sound too narrow. It is really more of a social history of the rise and fall of the housewife stereotype, seen through the lens of food, the rise of the food industry, and high and low cooking. As some of the other reviewers have stated, a few of the biographies may have gone on a bit long, but I didn't mind as Shapiro managed to make them all fascinating. In a way I really related to Poppy Cannon, an icon who I'd never heard of before and her penchant for both great food and convenience. Isn't that actually the way most home cooks make dinner these days, even those who care about tasty, healthy food? We may not be making gross jello salads any longer, but we think nothing of opening a jar of good satay sauce to flavor our Thai stir-fries.

This is the kind of book I will keep on my shelf to refer to, and to re-read in the future. I absolutely loved it!

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Men could benefit by reading this historical work

Yes, I have to confess that this book is going to be of primary interest to women, male chefs too, but men in general would find that this work is, first and foremost, a HISTORY of cooking and food in 20th-Century America. It's a sort of an oblique and logical follow-up to Ms. Shapiro's "Perfection Salad" (another fine book!) and is well-researched and informative.

Here, you'll read about food cooking trends as well as all the period heavy-hitters of the culinary world: James Beard, Julia Child, Poppy Cannon, MFK Fisher, and more. There's also a great little biography of Betty Crocker, a woman who actually never existed!

There's little need for me to say more except that the book reads like a good novel and I found it fascinating. It's clearly a must-read for anyone who considers himself or herself a "chef," either professional or enthusiastic amateur.

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From Betty Crocker to Betty Friedan

Something From the Oven covers almost everything about American food culture during the post-World War II years until the mid 1960s. There are accounts of the advent of convenience foods, the literature of food, the rise of cooking shows on TV, and the phenomenon of cooking contests such as the Pillsbury Bake-Off.

The topics seem loosely connected, with no particular conclusions drawn. But it's a pop history book, not an academic tome, so sit back and enjoy an entertaining look at food from several historical angles.

Shapiro talks about the post-war need for convenience food. At least, manufacturers wanted there to be a need for convenience foods, whether American cooks agreed or not. There were a lot of experiments in the first days. Successful products included concentrated frozen orange juice and fish sticks. Unsuccessful product proposals included canned deep-fried hamburgers and concentrated distilled water. (I suspect if Shapiro is having us on with that last idea.)

The section on domestic literature was especially fun, although a lot of it had little to do with food. Shapiro discusses Shirley Jackson, Erma Bombeck, Peg Bracken, Bette MacDonald, Jean Kerr, and the Gilbreths of Cheaper By the Dozen fame, among others. She reveals that there was often a big difference between their supposedly non-fiction works and their actual lives. I look forward to rereading these old favorites with this new information in mind, as well as looking up some authors Shapiro mentions that I was not aware of.

The mini-history of Julia Child's career is entertaining, and the extensive bibliography is a treasure trove of further reading ideas. Recommended!

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Fascinating, fun, and a pleasure to read

There isn't much more to add to the other reviewers, but I did want to say that I picked up this book fearing it would be a bit too "academic," but the author did a great job presenting the history and research in a way that was a true pleasure to read. She made me think about issues like women in the workforce, the importance of the kitchen as the center of the home, the creative way cooks have always found shortcuts, and the like. Lots of fun stuff you wouldn't believe, too -- like all the ways to cook with Jell-O. Thumbs up.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

In this delightfully surprising history, Laura Shapiro?author of the classic Perfection Salad?recounts the prepackaged dreams that bombarded American kitchens during the fifties. Faced with convincing homemakers that foxhole food could make it in the dining room, the food industry put forth the marketing notion that cooking was hard; opening cans, on the other hand, wasn?t. But women weren?t so easily convinced by the canned and plastic-wrapped concoctions and a battle for both the kitchen and the true definition of homemaker ensued. Beautifully written and full of wry observation, this is a fun, illuminating, and definitely easy-to-digest look back at a crossroads in American cooking.

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