Who Would Like This Book:
If you get a kick out of quirky Americana, retro recipes, or just love diving into food history, you'll find "Fashionable Food" an absolute treat! Sylvia Lovegren's witty storytelling brings 20th-century American food trends to life, poking fun at Spam, Jell-O salads, and wild culinary fads. Home cooks will appreciate the huge variety of vintage recipes (from the truly delicious to the downright weird), while nostalgics and cultural history buffs will be fascinated by how technology, pop culture, and social change show up on the dinner table. This is a must for anyone who adores flipping through cookbooks or has ever wondered why your grandma kept a banana salad recipe.
Who May Not Like This Book:
Readers seeking an up-to-date or more comprehensive take may be disappointed - this book stops in the 1990s, missing recent culinary revolutions like the Food Network era or the rise of food blogs. If you want lots of glossy photos, you'll also be left wanting, since some editions are more text-heavy. The book also tends to focus more on what was considered 'fashionable,' which might skip over what everyday families actually cooked. And, a few readers found the author's jabs at baby boomers or reliance on decade divisions a little grating. It’s not the deepest historical analysis, but it is fun.
About:
'Fashionable Food, Seven Decades of Food Fads' by Sylvia Lovegren is a comprehensive exploration of American culinary history from the 1920s to the 1980s, focusing on food trends and recipes from each decade. The book provides insights into the evolution of American cooking habits, the influence of social and cultural movements on food fads, and the impact of key figures like Julia Child and M.F.K. Fisher. Lovegren's writing style combines wit, humor, and historical accuracy to present a lively narrative that delves into the nuances of food fashion in the United States.
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From The Publisher:
Though the Roaring Twenties call to mind images of flappers dancing the Charleston and gangsters dispensing moonshine in back rooms, Sylvia Lovegren here playfully reminds us what these characters ate for dinner: Banana and Popcorn Salad. Like fashions and fads, food-even bad food-has a history, and Lovegren's Fashionable Food is quite literally a cookbook of the American past.
Well researched and delightfully illustrated, this collection of faddish recipes from the 1920s to the 1990s is a decade-by-decade tour of a hungry American century. From the Three P's Salad-that's peas, pickles, and peanuts-of the post-World War I era to the Fruit Cocktail and Spam Buffet Party loaf-all the rage in the ultra-modern 1950s, when cooking from a can epitomized culinary sophistication-Fashionable Food details the origins of these curious delicacies. In two chapters devoted to "exotic foods of the East," for example, Lovegren explores the long American love affair with Chinese food and the social status conferred upon anyone chic enough to eat pu-pu platters from Polynesia. Throughout, Lovegren supplements recipes-some mouth-watering, some appalling-from classic cookbooks and family magazines, with humorous anecdotes that chronicle how society and kitchen technology influenced the way we lived and how we ate.
Equal parts American and culinary history, Fashionable Food examines our collective past from the kitchen counter. Even if it's been a while since you last had Tang Pie and your fondue set is collecting dust in the back of the cupboard, Fashionable Food will inspire, entertain, and inform.
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About the Author:
A culinary historian and food writer, Sylvia Lovegren is an avid collector and reader of old cookbooks and has contributed to American Heritage and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America.
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