Home cooking is crucial to our lives, but today we no longer identify it as an obligatory everyday chore. By looking closely at the stories and practices of contemporary American home cooks-witnessing them in the kitchen and at the table-Amy B. Trubek reveals our episodic but also engaged relationship to making meals.

Making Modern Meals explores the state of American cooking over the past century and across all its varied practices, whether cooking is considered a chore, a craft, or a creative process. Trubek challenges current assumptions about who cooks, who doesn't, and what this means for culture, cuisine, and health. She locates, identifies, and discusses the myriad ways Americans cook in the modern age, and in doing so, argues that changes in making our meals-from shopping to cooking to dining-have created new cooks, new cooking categories, and new culinary challenges.

Amy B. Trubek is Associate Professor of Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Vermont. She is the author of Haute Cuisine: How the French Invented the Culinary Profession and The Taste of Place: A Cultural Journey into Terroir.

List of Illustrations

Introduction: From Cook to Cooks
1. Cooking Is a Chore
2. Cooking Is an Occupation
3. Cooking Is an Art
4. Cooking Is a Craft
5. Cooking Is for Health
Conclusion

Appendix: Methods
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Illustration Credits
Index