Secret Ingredients

I have to agree with some of my classmates that most of the articles written before the 1990s in the “Dining Out” section of Secret Ingredients didn’t hold my attention for very long. I sensed a noticeable shift in writing style once I reached Adam Gopnik’s “Is there a crisis in French cooking?” The story and the vocabulary appeared less lavish and more relatable in Anthony Bourdain's and Jim Harrison’s pieces. Bourdain’s, “Don’t eat before reading this” was my favorite article in the section, mostly because of the content itself, but it was like a splash of color in a sea of gray. In class, we’ve talked a lot of about food justice, knowing where our food is coming from, but we haven’t touched as much on the ethics of restaurant kitchens (I don’t want to be punished for wanting a well-done piece of meat, nor do I want my hollandaise to consist of recycled butter. I’m slightly less comfortable eating in restaurants now knowing that my food’s probably been picked at over and over--which Bourdain claims is a sign of good cooking).

I admit that I read him differently than the other authors because I liked and knew him from A Cook’s Tour; I expected the same humor and wit, and wasn’t sidetracked by his comments on unfamiliar French cooking like other pieces. I could hear the voice I read in his novel, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I would have enjoyed the other authors as much had I been more familiar with their work. I also wondered if my lack of interest in the first 60 pages of “Dining Out” had anything to do with everything being about France and French cooking. I didn’t know what to expect from these pieces as a whole and was anxious to find a connecting thread, and I suppose it is the authors’ experiences with the French cuisine. As I was hoping for a break from this, I experienced a greater appreciation for the variety in Bourdain's novel, his different food and travel experiences across the world.

Like the last couple of articles in “Dining Out,” I could relate to the more personal descriptions from “Dining In.” M.F.K. Fisher’s descriptions of family and casseroles, although meant for mass feeding he says, were more intimate and relatable. Tomkins’ article on Julia Child was the most entertaining because I kept picturing Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci in the film Julie & Julia. In Tomkins’ descriptions of Julia Child and her path to success, I thought about the progress that female chefs have made in the cooking industry and if/how they are treated differently than male chefs today. Is the industry male-dominated? If we as an American society are still so inclined to perceive women primarily in a traditionally domestic setting, does that mean female chefs should be dominating the networks? I’m interested to hear what others think about this. The piece also got me thinking about television personalities; is Tomkins right when he says that cooking stars like Child just don’t exist anymore? I’ve never seen any of her episodes, but just the descriptions of her provoked a comparison with present-day TV stars. My knowledge of famous chefs is limited to the Food Network, where it’s not hard to find quirky chefs like Alton Brown, but I wonder if there’s anybody who exists today who can match up to what Julia Child meant to the world in the 1950s.