M. Aboim //
Regarding the theme of food and consumerism, I think it would be fun to talk about how we use media as a means of social critique and analysis. The example I want to use in this case is The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell or the later re-edited version The Cookbook. Powell used the facade of a cookbook as a way to arm revolutionary minded people with tools for that same purpose -by teaching how to make bombs and drugs- not as a mindless just for fun book, it had its convictions even if the latest edition tries to suppress this by justifying it as a phase in the author’s life. Now, this shouldn’t detract from the impact the original edition had. It was a very ballsy move, but now it’s impossible to have something like this happen again, right? It’s very hard to take the shape of a cookbook and transform it into a revolutionary weapon, but it happened! Can it be used for a more critical perspective? To retell forgotten cultures’ stories?
The media has always had some form of propagandistic use, but nowadays it can be very diluted, especially when making concrete statements. In the last edition of Dackekuriren, for example, I wrote about a video game and how it uses a fictional world to present how political systems in ours actively respond to revolutionary majorities, and its way of presenting these ideas is no different to a crime/romance book. It is very story heavy and you’re just following a narrative, but how do we translate this type of meaningful ideas into other types of media? We’ve seen impactful messages in photography, music, video, and all these different, niche categories, but what about food and cookbooks?
The most prevalent examples of history-focused cookbooks are mostly about the roots of American soul food, without a serious analysis of the origins of the cultures that inspired these dishes and how they came to America, so they’re really lacking when it comes to a political book. On the other hand there are some really nice examples, besides cookbooks, regarding food that do take a more critical approach, for example, Anthony Bourdain’s journalistic work, be it in writing or in video, serves to humanize a lot of cultures that have been wronged in traditional media and opens a window into how food unites humanity not only as sustenance but as a gathering ritual, a way for a community to shape itself.
The next step is simply to bridge the gap between recipes and journalistic work. Food shapes our communities, but we also shape the food we eat throughout generations. When times get hard, maybe some pricier ingredients get swapped for cheaper ones, but then there’s a whole new dish that can be a part of your culture.