Zadie Smith on the Culinary Arts Part 1 of 2
Cooking in Nineteenth Century America, Image origin unknown
I enjoyed an insightful interview the host of Fresh Air Terry Gross did with the novelist Zadie Smith. Several of Smith’s comments as relates to my interest in the topic of gifts and cooking led me to pull my car over to the side of the road and take notes. Post today and tomorrow evolved out of listening to that interview. Smith talked about the recent passing of her father who had been an excellent cook who could make fantastic Jamaican dishes as well as homemade pizza. Smith herself has only recently discovered the joy of cooking and is undergoing a renaissance in her kitchen moving from viewing cooking for her children as a contemptible necessity to a joyful creative outlet she does in addition to her writing. She argues, and I agree, that the feminist movement undermined woman's ability to enjoy creating things that had been associated with the dreaded cult of domesticity rooted in 19 century restrictions placed on women by women and men in Western societies and elsewhere.
