Thanks for your thoughtful article on home cooking vs. eating out and how it’s not some simple Eureeka-like answer. (I also wanted to direct your attention to this because I think you’ll really enjoy it: http://blog.kitchenmage.com/2010/06/cooks-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-knife-roll.html). There’s a very prevalent sense of smugness when it comes to things like feminism and cooking (and countless other things, of course) that does a really effective job at muddying the waters and diluting what is otherwise a good message, and as I’m working out a thesis right now, I find myself struggling at times not to sound too reductionist. Thanks for reminding me of a very salient point that I might not have immediately considered. I’m so glad I’m following you now!
Hi! Thank you so much for writing this!
That article about Cook’s Privilege? Pure gold! Absolutely spot on. And I really appreciate you leaving the link.
As you follow me more, you might notice I sometimes write about food. Not just food politics (a favorite subject), but food as joy. Because I love to cook. Arguably, I am a good cook (my food presentation skills are subpar, but that’s because I am anxious that IT WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH TO FEED EVERYONE SO OMG I NEED TO CONTINUE FILLING PLATES TO THE BRIM!). But I not only enjoy eating, I also love experimenting with food. However, having grown up in South America, I am also well aware of the implications of food, having seen first hand what it means not to have it; and how it is probably the only element we share across cultures that also intersects with almost every other aspect of our sociopolitical prism. From class, to gender, to race, education, health, etc… food touches it all and colors our experience in ways that I suspect no other element in our daily lives does.
But then again, because food is so personal and so intertwined with who we are as people, it is easy to believe that our personal experiences, our realities, if you will, are sort of universal and applicable to everyone else (hence the litany of “BUT IF I CAN COOK, ANYONE CAN!”). If we add this to a relatively new distortion of the old “The personal is political”, which seems to have mutated to “My personal experience is the only political one” in some spaces of media, and then we have the judgement and the oblivious overlooking of all those intersections I mentioned above.
As I always say, I do not have answers. But I sure will continue asking the questions. Cheers, again! 🙂
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