mardi 27 novembre 2012

Food, Transforming the American Table 1950-2000

Mathilde Fourgeot - week 8


The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (Washington) presents a new exhibition since November 20: Food, Transforming the American Table 1950-2000. This new exhibition explores the important changes of American food habits. And especially the factors of those changes, for example the new technologies or varied influences too, like the diversity of nationalities in the United States due to an important immigration in this country. Or in short: social and cultural changes in American’s life.

The exhibition is divided into five sections: 
- Julia’s Child kitchen: she’s a legendary cook, which has a very important impact on American food. The Americans know her through her books or TV-shows. This room contains equipment when she began to cook (the late 1940s). It’s an important figure in the American way of eating, Paula Jonhson’s position (the curator) is that she “introduced a new way of thinking about food — French food — but also caring about ingredients,”
- “New and Improved ! ”: It’s an opportunity to reflect on the long-term effects of mass production and consumerism 
- Resetting the Table: this room deals with the immigrants’ influences on American food and taste 
- Wine for the Table: Wine is traditionally linked with Europe. But this room is an opportunity to understand how technologies permitted the Americans to produce wine too and to appropriate a special know-how. 
- Open Table: there is a table and the visitors can take a seat to speak with the others

Food, Transforming the American Table tries to condense a part of the American cultural history. It’s very interesting to see how the American culture, like in a lot of Anglo-Saxons states, feeds on the diversity of nationalities and traditions and how the food could be an indicator to measure or to suggest the diversity in a country and the diversity of a culture.

 Julia Child's kitchen

Sources

http://americanhistory.si.edu/food-introduction
http://americanhistory.si.edu/food-the-exhibition

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