Monthly Archives: August 2009

The favorite bourgeoisie food scribe, Michael Pollan, recently published a whining screed about how people don’t cook anymore, they just watch other people cook. Of course, as with all Pollan articles, by ‘people’ he means the bourgeoisie; white, upper middle class social strivers with disposable income and well-examined navels. These people, the bourgeoisie, have always aspired to NOT cook. Julia Child, who Pollan appreciatively credits with his mothers, and his, “culinary awakening”, is not so disingenuous as to pretend to be a defender of some sacred social ritual. In a 1989 interview, Child states simply that “I grew up in the teens and ‘20s, when most people had—middle class people—had maids or someone to help.” She goes on to say that her mother only knew two dishes, and herself, none at all. None of this should be surprising. The aristocratically wealthy have always had cooks amongst their servants, and the bourgeoisie have always longed to emulate, as far as… Read more