Learn economics from your cookbooks

Jane recently pointed out a thought-provoking article from Foreign Policy – not a usual source of inspiration for these blogs. In his article, The Cookbook Theory of Economics, Tyler Cowen presents an insightful thesis on how to look at cuisine-specific cookbooks and judge the economic status of the underlying country and its possible future development – among other things.

For example, take this paragraph: “Cookbooks — the more practical kind — also turn out to be good guides to which countries and regions are on the cusp of economic progress. Look at chef Marcus Samuelsson’s African cookbook,  The Soul of a New Cuisine, or Naomi Duguid’s  Burma: Rivers of Flavor, both of which are vast improvements on earlier offerings in their respective regions. It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that Africa’s economies are booming at near double-digit growth rates or that Myanmar is going through a fundamental economic and political revolution, moving from a closed society to a globalizing developing country.”

The Soul of a New Cuisine is owned by almost 200 of our members and Duguid’s book is owned by almost 50 members – plus it has won numerous best cookbook listings and an IACP award. So we’d argue that the correlation works both ways – cookbooks are guides to economically progressing countries and the latter are guides to the next popular cuisines(s).

And, for a second example, we were also intrigued by this process of how  cuisine-specific cookbooks gain popularity: “Thai cuisine hit U.S. shores in the late 1960s, thanks to American troops on R&R in Bangkok during the Vietnam War who brought the taste home, and it wasn’t long before restaurants followed. Soon, a booming economy and international trade made it a whole lot easier to find galangal and lemongrass, which allowed Thai restaurants to thrive. Today, any major U.S. city has at least a half-dozen places where you can find a decent green chicken curry. And once a cuisine proliferates, people want to be able to cook it at home.”

Everyone (at least in the U.S.) can mull this over while having a wonderful 4th of July. And if you’re looking for last-minute inspiration, check out our Red, White, and Blue Pinterest Board for a variety of great recipes.