Women and Cooking
Associate Professor of History Tracey Deutsch and Margie Tang-Whitmore, PhD student in history, are food historians who were excited for the opportunity to work with the Minnesota Historical Society on their current exhibition Julia Child: A Recipe for Life as well as the companion shows Women with Taste: Culinary Visionaries of the Twin Cities and MNCooks. Deutsch has also published an online article: “The Julia Child Project: the Cold War, France, and the Politics of Food.” They share some of the insights they have gained from their experience with the exhibits as well as from their respective research.
Q: What initially got you interested in these exhibits?
As scholars both interested in the social aspects of food, particularly its intersection with gender, we were really struck by the name of the exhibit. Ways of cooking are also ways of living. The companion exhibits, in particular, document the multiplicity of ways that cooking reflects and sustains ways of life. From cookbooks by mothers supporting their kids’ hockey teams to reservation cookbooks to immigrant chefs like Leeann Chin, it shows the many different ways women use food to make a life for themselves and support their communities.
Q: What have you learned by focusing on women as chefs?
In our respective work, we are both interested in how, during the mid-twentieth century, becoming a food authority became a unique method of economic independence and community building for women. The paradox of these histories is that these female chefs often publicly embraced a white, heteronormative understanding of gender and femininity while simultaneously living out non-normative lives.
Q: Margie, your research focuses on Chinese immigrant celebrity chefs, can you tell us more about the connection to Minnesota history?
The fourth chapter of my dissertation focuses on Minnesota chef Leeann Chin, one of the featured women in this exhibition. When I moved to Minnesota for graduate school I was struck by how fondly Minnesotans spoke about Chin and her culinary work, from her recipes that make up the Betty Crocker Chinese Cook Book (1981) to her chain of fast-casual restaurants throughout the Twin Cities. Chin has her own uniquely Minnesotan story too. She collaborated with many Minnesotan big names like General Mills and the Pohlad family (the current owners of the Minnesota Twins). Most importantly though, as a successful chef and entrepreneur in Minnesota Chin was able to do what was hard for many immigrant women at this time — make an independent living and take on a leadership role in her community. Through her charitable foundation she supported Minnesota non-profit organizations like the Minnesota Children’s Hospital and the Minnesota Cancer Center. She was also invited to join the Committee of 100 (C-100), an elite, non-partisan national Chinese American advocacy group. As a part of the C-100, she participated in a 1994 diplomatic trip to the People’s Republic of China.
Q: Tracey, what connections or parallels do you see from your research on Julia Child?
My current book project on Julia Child also supports this idea of food as a route to authority and political change for women during the mid-twentieth century. Through her show and cookbook, Child encouraged Americans to make and produce food that was outward facing — to cook gourmet food for their adult friends and neighbors and even to master cuisines of other countries. She made ambitious home cooking something that could enliven family life and even expand its purview. Her recipes made food a key site in Americans’ engagement with globalism and Cold War politics.
Q: What do you see ahead for research on female chefs?
In addition to publishing these projects, we’re both committed to continue doing public work as with the Minnesota Historical Society that seeks to de-naturalize the association between women and cooking. We each will continue to ask seriously why women chose to engage in such difficult, and often dangerous, work–and be ready for their complicated answers.
