A Century of Food 1960 – 1969

In 1945, an American woman went to Paris with her husband. While there, she attended the Cordon Bleu cooking school and became very fascinated with French cooking. She was eager to share her fascination with others back in America, so when she returned she ended up writing a cookbook. In 1961, Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child was heralded by critics and housewives alike. But her TV show, The French Chef, which aired from 1963 to 1967, made her America’s first true celebrity chef. She inspired a generation to see the act of cooking as a joy and an art
In the United States. She alone is credited with restoring our culinary culture after a decade in the 50’s of processed food and a trend away from home cooking. She introduced us to the luxuries of butter, cream and cognac. The newly affluent were eager to try to attain culture and she made it very approachable. We were introduced to Cog au Vin, Boeuf Bourguignon, Mousse au Chocolate and Duck a l’Orange.  The 1960s decade was  stormy  shaped by the clash of conforming tradition and radical change. WWII rationing was a distant memory; 50s casseroles were old & boring. The late 60’s brought social unrest with growing frustration over the Vietnam War, assassinations of a President (JFK), a civil rights leader (Martin Luther King), and a political candidate (Robert Kennedy).

Asian Invasion

The 60s encouraged showy, complicated food with French influence (Julia Child, Jacqueline Kennedy), suburban devotion (backyard barbecues), vegetarian curiosity and ethnic cuisine (soul food, Japanese Steak houses). This was also the decade of flaming things (fondue & Steak Diane) and lots and lots of junk food (aimed at the baby boom children). “Average” suburban families patronized family-style restaurant chains like Howard Johnson’s. The first Wendy’s restaurant opened in 1969.

Immigrant dishes changed from the traditional Chinese, Italian dominance to that of Vietnam and Laos after the Vietnam War. The Asian food invasion began in California Gold Rush days, but this Asian food provided more variety than before. Asian immigration more than quadrupled by 1970. Some dishes brought new flavors like a Vietnamese beef soup called pho, deep-fried spiced potato-stuffed samosas from India, and preserved Korean vegetables called kimchi.  Japanese food prepared at the table became “trendy”.

Interestingly, immigrant food was class conscious. Mexican food was considered low class, but Indian cuisine with fewer immigrants is admired. That is more likely due to the Indian immigrants are nearly 60% professionals, says Krishnendu Ray, a professor and author of The Migrants Table: Meals and Memories in Bengali-American Households.

Many Cuban people, namely the educated upper classes moved to America after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959 and brought their cuisine with them. Like other Caribbean countries, staples were black beans and rice, and plantains. They also like pork marinated in vinegar and orange juice and stewed with onions; chicken roasted with garlic; and tropical fruit drinks, especially with rum. The Bacardi family also migrated to America after the rum industry was nationalized in Cuba.

The Revolutions

Millions of people in the world were starving. Technology’s answer was food that was genetically engineered like soy and dwarf rice that had a short growing time, a phenomenal yield and would grow anywhere in Asia. It could produce two crops a year and yielded more rice per plant. This was the beginning of the Green Revolution. People began to eat more consciously after the book by Rachel Carson, Silent Spring was published. Her book spoke of the consequences of using pesticides which led people to be more aware about where food comes,

The Blue Revolution involved aquaculture or fish farming. Both these revolutions have pros and cons, critics and proponents. Aquaculture nevertheless is probably the world’s fastest growing form of food prodution and some believe that by 2030, aquaculture will supply most the fish people eat.

Counterculture Cuisine

Some people took it a few steps further by growing their own fruits, vegetables and herbs, milked farm animals and revolted against white foods – Minute Rice, Cool Whip, instant potatoes, white sugar, white bread. Hippies dominated the culture and brought with them a return to unprocessed foods. They baked their own bread, made peanut butter tahini and hummus, ate brown rice and brown eggs. They brought to our attention cooperatives, vegetarianism, and fresh food markets and health food stores. Food quickly evolved from French cooking to “back to the earth” attitude. Earth Day was first celebrated to raise environmental issues on April 22, 1970.

Thin Is In

In the 1960’s overabundance, fast foods and processed foods led to the beginnings of the obesity problem in America. On the diet front, Jean Nidetch and several friends met in her apartment in 1961 to counsel each other about dieting. Her support group eventually became Weight Watchers. The sugar free soft drink Tab is introduced in 1963. In 1967, Twiggy, 5’7” and weighing just 92 pounds becomes a supermodel and influenced thousands of young women to rethink their body image to try to meet her standards. The slogan “thin is in” quite possibly led to a resurgence of eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia that saw its roots in the Victorian days of the 19th century.

Sources: 

Linda Civitello, Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People, 2nd Edition.

Carolyn Wyman, Better Than Homemade: Amazing Foods That Changed the Way We Eat, 2004

Susan Yager, The Hundred Year Diet: America’s Voracious Appetite for Losing Weight , 2010

The earliest barley bread appeared in about 10,000 BCE;  it was a flatbread less than one inch thick and required no slicing. Later, wheat, and leavening agents were introduced, making much larger loaves  that needed to be torn in half by hand or sliced with a knife.

But it took until the 20th century for things to change:

Otto Rohwedder had an idea; however,  nobody wanted his machine. The Davenport , Iowa salesman had worked on a device for slicing loaves of bread for more than a decade, but bakers were dubious. They protested that the bread would go stale, that consumers only wanted their loaves whole, or that it just wouldn’t work.

Then in 1928, Frank Bench, who owned a small bakery in Chillicothe, Missouri., decided to give it a try. Richard, Otto’s  son who was 13 years old at the time fed the bread through the very peculiar looking machine.  It quickly became popular. The ladies liked and wanted it, he recalls, and the sales at Bench’s bakery increased by 2000% in just a few weeks. But there was a problem with the bread drying out. Otto had first tried hatpins which joined several slices to each other. He soon discovered that this method was not practical.

An idea gathered more steam when a St.  Louis Baker named Gustav Papendik created a machine that not only sliced the bread but wrapped it, too, keeping the slices from drying out.

The beginning of the 20th century marked a turning point for home kitchens. More than 2/3 of American homes had electricity by the end of the 1920s, and as hired help left for factories or other jobs, home makers looked to electrical appliances like the toaster (invented at least a decade earlier) to ease their kitchen workload.

The bread symbolic of this period was Wonder Bread. This originally unsliced bread was first baked by the Taggart Baking Company of Indianapolis about 1920. Taggart was later acquired by Continental Baking Company in 1925. Wonder Bread was produced at a full-scale bakery at the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and was the sponsor of popular radio programs. In 1941  Wonder Bread was advertised as “enriched” with vitamins and minerals and advertised on children’s radio programs with the tag line in the 50’s – “Wonder Bread Builds Strong Bodies 8 Ways”, In the 1960’s, when backlash arose against overly refined food products, Wonder Bread became a prime target for criticism.

Lately there’s been a movement back toward the old way; artisanal unsliced. The way we try to make bread now gives it a much “wheatier”  flavor. Now we are more concerned about the content of our bread as “whole grains” as part of a healthy diet rather than what form it is.   White bread has now become a diet “villain.” And no one was ever quite sure how Wonder Bread built bodies 8 ways.

 Source: The Greatest Thing, Period. Betsy Querna, U.S. News and World Report, August 15 – 22, 2005

Source: Sliced Bread: The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, Edited by Andrew F. Smith, 2007.

Another “win” for the Mediterranean Diet and a big loss for the Standard American Diet (SAD).

For more on the Mediterranean Diet, CLICK HERE.

The obesity epidemic continues to roar on with the latest stats reporting that Americans have never been heavier than they are now. One culprit that is often cited is our incessant habit of snacking – with some people eating two mini-meals (snacks) a day in addition to three traditional meals. Due to our unhealthy food supply (e.g. processed foods), these foods will tend to contain the three villains for weight gain: salt, fat, and sugar.

Two studies from the American Dietetic Association suggest that people who snack are leaner than those who don’t. It’s important to realize that in reality, these people were more health conscious and actually ate fewer calories overall. So is is quality or quantity? I vote for quality here. So if you snack, choose wisely. Also, the American Dietetic Association now called the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) tends to favor research that supports the food industry (my opinion). “During the fiscal year 2015, the organization received $1.1 million in corporate sponsorships from companies like General Mills and PepsiCO via donations, joint initiatives, and programs. ” Source Wikipedia.

CLICK HERE.

Timeline: The 1950’s

1950 In Quincy, Mass., Bill Rosenberg changes the name of his doughnut shop to Dunkin’ Donuts. In 1955 he sells his first franchise.

1951 former Marine Glen Bell, 28, introduces the first fast food taco at his hamburger and hot dog stand in San Bernardino California. Bell, looking for unique product spots tacos at an area restaurant. He comes up with a contraption that will hold tortillas in hot oil to form the now classic U-shaped taco shell, enabling him to fried tortillas and offer fast Mexican fare.

1951 The defense industry needs aluminum for the Korean war effort, so Reynolds curtails production of it for home use. By 1953, it back in production and Saran Wrap is introduced.

1952 Col. Sanders sells its 1st first Kentucky fried chicken franchise.

1952 Lipton food company Rolls out a dehydrated onion soup mix that will earn its fame as a base for onion dip: two envelopes of the mix +1 cup sour cream. Lipton eventually prints the recipe, “California Dip” on the package.

1953 Fritos introduces the Frito kid, a mascot the company uses until 1967.

1954 the C. A. Swanson Company has a problem: the holidays are over but they still have railroad cars full of frozen turkeys. Employee Gerry Thomas has an idea (although fellow workers nearly laughed him out of the Omaha plant): package the turkey along with some dressing, gravy, corn bread, peas, and sweet potatoes into partitioned metal trays. Sell it frozen, and consumers could heat it up for dinner: his name for the leftover meal: TV dinner. Swanson made 6000 of the $.98 meals. Within a year, they had shipped 10 million more.

1954 The first Burger King opens in Miami. A burger is $.18, as is a milkshake. The whopper is introduced in 1957 and sells for $.37.

1954 Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine it Is proven safe an effective, And the first successful kidney transplant is performed.

1955 Milk shake- machine salesman Ray Kroc tries to persuade Dick and Mac McDonald (owners of the original McDonald’s in California to franchise their concept. They aren’t interested, but they tell Kroc to go ahead and try his hand. Kroc opens his first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois and eventually buys out the McDonald’s.

1956 More than 80% of US households have refrigerators. By contrast, only eight percent of British households have refrigerators.

1957 Better Homes and Gardens prints its first microwave cooking article.

1957 Margarine and sales take the lead over butter.

1958 Eighteen – year- old Frank Carney sees a story in the Saturday Evening Post about the pizza fad among teenagers and college students. With $600 borrowed from his mother, he opens the first Pizza Hut in Wichita Kansas.

1959 Hagen – Dazs ice cream is introduced.