Making Modern Meals

Home cooking is crucial to our lives, but today we no longer identify it as an obligatory everyday chore. By looking closely at the stories and practices of contemporary American home cookswitnessing them in the kitchen and at the tableAmy B. Trubek reveals our episodic but also engaged relationship to making meals. Making Modern Mealsexplores the state of American cooking over the past century and across all its varied practices, whether cooking is considered a chore, a craft, or a creative process. Trubek challenges current assumptions about who cooks, who doesn't, and what this means for culture, cuisine, and health. She locates, identifies, and discusses the myriad ways Americans cook in the modern age, and in doing so, argues that changes in making our mealsfrom shopping to cooking to dininghave created new cooks, new cooking categories, and new culinary challenges.