Episode 193: Women Behind the Food Sections

This week on a brand new episode of A Taste of the Past, host Linda Pelaccio kicks off 2015 talking to Dr. Kimberly Wilmot Voss, author of “The Food Section: Newspaper Women and the Culinary Community.” Linda and Kim discuss how food blogs are everywhere today but that 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. The food sections actually helped make James Beard and Julia Child household names as the editors wrote about their television appearances and reviewed their cookbooks. Tune in to this interesting episode to learn all about the evolution of food journalism and more! This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.

“The food sections in the 1950s and 1960s show that we had a more complex relationship with food than had previously been described.” [2:15]

“At the heart, many of these women were journalists… many were actually very poor cooks and some journalists didn’t want to be considered cooks.” [24:10]

—Dr. Kimberly Wilmot Voss on A Taste of the Past

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