A lot of interesting writing has been happening in the world of food recently, enough to get a nerdy gastronome like myself all hot and bothered. First, Michael Pollan (eat food, not too much, mostly greens…RAH! Damn you, Dilip.)wrote a massive and really interesting essay in last week’s New York Times Magazine entitled, Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch. This fatty paper (I do not exaggerate–this beast is 7,000 words–half of my freaking dissertation, people!) reminisces about how Pollan’s mother was influenced to cook by Julia Childs. He goes through an entire history of food television, from Julia all the way to Sandra Lee, and his research finds that as we watch more food television, we are cooking less, and the cooking we are doing is not actually cooking, but taking processed ingredients and heating them up. Read the rest of this entry »
