Encyclopedia of Kitchen History

Citation

Fairchild, R. (2006), "Encyclopedia of Kitchen History", British Food Journal, Vol. 108 No. 8, pp. 692-693. https://doi.org/10.1108/00070700610682373

A labour of love is one of the ways in which you could describe this book. Six hundred and eighty four pages chronicling kitchens and everything that go on in them, of a culinary nature at least. From Acton (Elizabeth) to Young (Hannah) via Bain‐Marie's, Forcing bags, Hay‐Box cookers, through to Mongolian Hot Pot and Slavery (or rather the use of slaves as kitchen servants) to Woks and beyond, this is an incredible collection of all things kitchenalia. Not only is it indexed at the back the preface is followed by an alphabetical list of entries, so you can check that your favourite domestic chef or piece of culinary equipment is present – or not. Each entry has further reading suggestions, and a common sources of information is given at the back of the book. Such a lifetime's commitment as this seems to have involved the roping in of other family members Hugh Snodgrass is credited with much of the photography and no surprise, it truly constitutes a lifetimes work and attention to detail beyond the call of publishing.

I leapt at the chance to review this book, home economist trained including a sabbatical in the USA, I could even forgive the spelling. Unfortunately the review has also been a labour of some time in the making. In the twenty‐first century an encylopedia of all things kitchen should have you positively drooling – the inventions, gadgets, creators of the way we eat today, the social significance of the most important family room, charting the changes in industrialisation and socialisation. I could barely wait to get started. Unfortunately although factually correct and alphabetically listed the encylopedia fails to, well, excite. Undeterred and thinking this was just my point of view I offered the book to three “foodie” friends who remarked it was terribly boring and rather more stuffy than they had expected. Somewhere along the line this book seems to have lost its “joy de vie” the enthusiasm with which the author writes in the preface of kitchen history being examining, appreciating and even celebrating domestic life in all its diverse forms and functions, is by air conditioning (the second entry of the 296 entries) falling a little flat.

Admittedly a huge project, one is left wondering why this did not appear as more accessible volumes – perhaps the food writers and chefs, the change in room designs and functions, the inventions of the equipment, etc. covered in smaller, more affordable chunks. What we have here is an eclectic mix, leaving one wondering why ready meals or TV dinners are not mentioned but soybeans and cannibalism are. The books coverage in some instances is complete Patten, Marguerite referred to as still working in her nineties, which is correct, yet microwaves seem to hang suspended in the late 1980s.

The next problem is who is this book intended for? No doubt hospitality or home economics students will find something of worth here, yet the price tag of £100.00 is likely to find few individual or library buyers. I cannot help feeling that this project should have been shelved somewhere in the mid 1990s and adapted into a CD rom version, more pictures, diagrams and action encapsulated into small bite size chunks available to food science, technology and even sociology lecturers across the land. As it stands this is a peculiar book, promising so much and yet delivering so little. The final straw? The picture on page 233, depicting “shellfish fisherman in Tenby, England”. Not in our lifetime. Tenby has been situated in Wales for the last few centuries at least. Mercifully this is a rare error in this huge, well researched, but undeniably boring tome.