Food Studies: The Culinary Journalists of the 1950s
My paper “The Culinary Journalists of the 1950s: An Examination of the Women Who Explained the News of Food” has been accepted for the 2014 Food Studies Conference.
The paper answers the question: Who were these women who covered the food beat at newspapers in the 1950s? Many false assumptions have been made about these food editors as being simple as best and at worst, as being unethical. The truth is that most editors (almost all female) were trained journalists and/or home economists. Yet, at various times these women have found themselves either marginalized or under attack. This paper seeks to clarify what was newspaper food journalism by looking at the editorial content of the sections and the journalists who covered them. There have been many generalizations that the sections were fluff or pandering to advertisers. This examination challenges those views. The editors were chosen based on being Vesta Award winners and/or being included in the 1952 Coast to Coast cookbook created by newspaper food editors. The results reflect a more complex understanding about food journalism than previously thought. Further, an examination of the food sections leads to a better understanding of home cooks of the 1950s.
One of the food editors I will be discussing in Jeanne Voltz who was the food editor at the Miami Herald in the 1950s. While there, she edited the recipe book pictured above.
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