Stories about food and women

Many men love to cook and are well represented in professional kitchens, but for centuries the everyday task of feeding the family has predominantly rested on the shoulders of women. They are the ones who toiled, day in and day out, often in difficult circumstances, to make sure that everyone was fed. Many of us learned to cook at our mother’s or grandmother’s elbow, learning not only how to prepare food but also sharing in an important cultural experience that has been handed down generation after generation. 

The contributions of women have frequently been overlooked because they tend to occur behind the scenes. This is an excellent day to remember women, both famous and ordinary, who have influenced the culinary world at large or have passed on family recipes to the next generation. Indexed blog The Kitchn is celebrating women today by featuring the site’s favorite stories about women and food. The stories aren’t just ones that have appeared on The Kitchn’s website, they include writing from other sites as well. There is even a video, titled “Grandma Knows Best: A 100-Year-Old Offers Her Best Cooking Tips”. Other stories discuss memories of mothers in the kitchen and tales of women in the restaurant industry. 

Many of our favorite food writers are women, and we celebrate them today as well. M.F.K. Fisher, Jane Grigson, Elizabeth David, Ruth Reichl, Alice Waters, and many more have shaped the way we cook and think about food and eating. Jenny recently featured a tribute to Edna Lewis, another influential woman in food. And we would be remiss not to mention the enormous impact of Julia Child, who inspired an entire genre of television cooking shows. If you have read any great stories about women and food recently, please share a link below.