Blog by Tori Avey
Blog overview:
The History Kitchen is one of the two blogs, avid blogger, Tori Avey maintains (the other one is The Shiksa in the Kitchen). Avey’s short bio on the blog is what brought me to it in the first place:
"Tori Avey is a culinary anthropologist, food writer, recipe developer, and creator of the popular food blog The Shiksa in the Kitchen. She explores the story behind the food - why we eat what we eat, how the foods of different cultures have evolved, and how yesterday's food can inspire us in the kitchen today.” (The History Kitchen, Home Page)
Reading this, made me want to explore more about her culinary anthropology, since I’m trying to discover mine. From reading around, the goal of this blog is to dive deeper into “all facets of food history,” which could be anything from food in ancient cultures, to food popping up in modern TV shows.
Posts are divided into two major sections, ‘What They Ate’ and ‘Did You Know...’ For the purposes of being concise, I focused on reading through some of the ‘Did You Know...’ posts, since those seemed to be more anthropologically inclined. Most of these posts are histories of certain foods, or food related topics. In these posts, she gives the history, but does include a cultural connection, and a look at how this food fits into today’s culture.
Diving Deeper:
A post that stood out to me is titled, “The History of Pie in America” from July 2011. Avey talks about why the pie is such a quintessential American food, beginning with the Pilgrims baking pies as a easy, efficient meal. Pie spread out around the country, being adapted to each state, placing itself deep into American culture. Pie is a ‘classic’ American food, one that exemplifies the further construction of individual American identities. I think I would agree with Avey, that if there was one food to be the face of America, pie would definitely be a contender. One of the most interesting topics she discusses is how the pie slightly disappeared from American tables for a while due to advertising in the mid-nineteenth century through WWII. Looking at the relationship women have with food, their roles involving food, and how that affects family food culture would be a great research topic, one I may look into in the future.
If I had to critique Avey, I would say that she calls herself a culinary anthropologist, but her anthropological angles are buried deep within her historical analysis of her posts. I wish she could bring up more anthropological angles within her posts, but she is trying to appeal to a mass audience, many of whom probably don’t have the vocabulary or knowledge of anthropology, or it’s analytical angles. Her other blog, The Shiksa in the Kitchen, discussing Jewish food, traditions, and customs seems to have more anthropological potential, but since it’s more recipe focused, the same lack-of-analysis issue arises.
Of course, this is all coming from my anthropological brain, so when I turn to my foodie brain, I see these blogs in simpler light... I totally enjoy Tori Avey’s stories, histories, and recipes, and plan to keep following her discoveries in the food world.
-Holly
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