The food section : newspaper women and the culinary community / Kimberly Wilmot Voss.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Food blogs are everywhere today but for generations, information and opinions about food were found in the food sections of newspapers in communities large and small. Until the early 1970s, these sections were housed in the women's pages of newspapers--where women could hold an authoritative voice. The food editors--often a mix of trained journalist and home economist--reported on everything from nutrition news to features on the new chef in town. They wrote recipes and solicited ideas from readers. The sections reflected the trends of the time and the cooks of the community. The editors were local celebrities, judging cooking contests and getting calls at home about how to prepare a Thanksgiving turkey. They were consumer advocates and reporters for food safety and nutrition. They helped make James Beard and Julia Child household names as the editors wrote about their television appearances and reviewed their cookbooks.



These food editors laid the foundation for the food community that Nora Ephron described in her classic 1968 essay, "The Food Establishment," and eventually led to the food communities of today. Included in the chapters are profiles of such food editors as Jane Nickerson, Jeanne Voltz, and Ruth Ellen Church, who were unheralded pioneers in the field, as well as Cecily Brownstone, Poppy Cannon, and Clementine Paddleford, who are well known today; an analysis of their work demonstrates changes in the country's culinary history. The book concludes with a look at how the women's pages folded at the same time that home economics saw its field transformed and with thoughts about the foundation that these women laid for the food journalism of today.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Though James Beard and Craig Claiborne were widely known in food-writing circles, their female contemporaries went largely unrecognized. Voss's book aims hopes to rectify this by shedding light on the contributions by women editors in the food section of newspapers in the United States from the 1940s through the '70s, a time "when food was changing significantly due to developments in technology and a changing American palate." Critics argue that during this time the food sections of newspapers were just recipes, but these food editors didn't merely stick to recipes. They wrote "about local stores, local restaurants, and local cooks." They reported on national food news as well, on poverty, nutrition, health standards, and government policies. They were particularly adept at connecting with their audiences. For instance, "exchange columns in which readers requested recipes were some of the most common, popular, and long-lasting features of the newspapers acting as a kind of early social media," Voss points out. The author occasionally veers into deeper components of the topic, such as the advent of food industry conferences for journalist, giving the book a more specialized, academic tilt, which may deter readers with a general interest. All and all, Voss offers a cogent examination of remarkable female journalists who served "an important role for their communities" over the years. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

This book is for anyone interested in the way the "women's pages" of the newspaper helped form people's relationship to food and its consumption. Voss (journalism, Univ. of Central Florida) points out that many people did not even consider women who wrote for the women's pages journalists. The author traces the history of food journalism and its role in consumer activism, the popularization of cookbooks of all kinds, and restaurant reviewers. Since women do most of the purchasing and cooking of food, they often turned to the newspaper for advice. During WW II when rationing was so strict, the newspaper and its women food writers became essential to the battle being waged on the home front. Later, food safety and nutrition became important topics for these writers. Voss emphasizes that the women who wrote those sections were trained journalists and home economists. In the 1970s, feminists began to view the women's sections as journalistic ghettos. Today, the food section is written by either women or men, and it is aimed at the whole family. The author's thorough research and documentation helps readers trace the evolution of this culturally significant section of the newspaper. --Cher Holt-Fortin, SUNY Oswego