The first published review of Watching What We Eat has surfaced!

Postwar cooking show host Dione Lucas taught French cuisine to the American viewing audience before Julia Child – oui, c’est vrai! Along with a thumbs up for Dione herself, this Time magazine article from 1955 forecasted a grim outlook for the future of the genre when TV itself was but a toddler! A couple of gems from the article (but the whole short thing is well worth the click):

“It is a measure of how TV cooking has declined that Dione Lucas does not have a horde of imitators. Gone are the old days when TV cooking simmered along on full-length programs over most stations around the country and the meringue melted under hot lights.”

And …”The trouble seems to be that the TV brass just does not believe that housewives are interested in good cooking. Where TV cooking has survived, it generally aims at a mass audience that will buy sponsored gastronomic monstrosities (e.g., prewhipped cream).”

There’s much more about Dione Lucas in Chapter 2 of Watching What We Eat.

Next time you’re on Facebook (you’re on it now, in the other tab, right?) join the Watching What We Eat fan page!

I’m glad that a prenatal copy of Watching What We Eat found its way into the hands of Matt Armendariz who gave it a nice plug in the March 13 post of his blog. I’m doubly glad because somehow Mattbites had escaped my attention all this time and now I can enjoy his fun and extremely aesthetically appealing site. He was also on Martha Stewart’s show making my favorite cookies, the time-consuming-but-well-worth-it Alfajores. The recipe I use has ground almonds in the dough which I highly recommend. (Part of the time consumption for me is that I don’t have a fancy standing mixer like Martha does.)

Food writer Melissa Clark and The Takeaway’s John Hockenberry revive the wisdom found in How to Cook a Wolf, a book written by the legendary MFK Fisher during World War II about how to cook and eat during tough times. Yet another example of yesterday’s tips proving useful today. Have a look-listen:

You may not have access to the “Hippy Gourmet” in your PBS viewing area, but as I have noted previously – who needs a TV? You can see this groovy show on YouTube. One HG ambassador referred to the show as “the future of cooking shows on TV – well traveled, emphasizing eco-tourism to organic, sustainable family farms and cooking up recipes that are healthy and fun for the whole family.” And to my great delight, they even hooked up with healthy eating guru and erstwhile Galloping Gourmet, Graham Kerr. Cheers, peace, love and good eats!

The 93-year-old Clara Cannucciari prepares and reminisces about the foods she ate with her family during the Great Depression on “Depression Cooking with Clara.” While her episodes (filmed by her grandson, Christopher) are replete with edited close-ups and pan sputtering audio, her overall no-frills style is no match for the highly-produced shows on TV today. No sir, Clara wins, hands down. Especially when she makes sugar cookies for Sunday breakfast with super strong coffee made with Depression-era kitchen tools. Clara – like all the successful cooking show hosts from the past – has come along at just the right time.

The New York Times reports that Food Magazines Begin to Consider Cooks’ Budgets. Gourmet has a new budget-conscious column called “Cook Smart,” and they put a ham sandwich on the March cover. One wonders: might TV cooking shows follow suit?

We don’t see a lot of cost-cutting tips on air in this Modern Era, but back in the 1970s, the other recession that some of us remember, Philadelphia school teacher LaDeva Davis hosted “What’s Cooking” on PBS. The theme was “eat well, save money” and Davis’ focus was on giving budget and nutrition tips.  One reporter called her show a  televised “recession cookbook.” And by the way, she was not at all dry and boring and playing the role of the nutrition police. She knew how to have a good time and entertain her viewers.

LaDeva Davis, circa 1975

Here is a visual to go along with my Feb. 8 post (scroll down). A few years ago I wrote a piece about my childhood affection for Julia Child in the now bygone (or hopefully just hibernating) food zine PekoPeko. This is artist Martin Cendrada’s rendition of me and was the illustration accompanying the story.