Chicken Spaghetti and Other Culinary Conceits: Cooking and Class in the Twentieth-century South

News item published on: 2018-08-30 09:04:00

Join food and cookbook enthusiasts on Thursday, October 4 for "Chicken Spaghetti and Other Culinary Conceits: Cooking and Class in the Twentieth-century South," presented by Andrew P. Haley, Associate Professor in the Department of History. Refreshments will begin at 6 p.m. with the lecture to follow at 6:30 p.m. in Cook Library room 123.

The foods we eat are part of a story we tell the world about ourselves: I am a vegetarian, he is a “meat and potatoes” kind of guy, she has a “delicate appetite.” In the first half of the twentieth century, the relatively inexpensive and easily prepared cuisine cooked in Southern kitchens suggested that the South was an egalitarian region and mitigated differences of class and race. Discussing what was said and unsaid at the kitchen table, Haley explores community cookbooks, daily dining, and social class in the Mississippi in this lecture.

The lecture will be accompanied by a potluck snack featuring recipes from Columbia, Mississippi’s As You Like It Club Cook Book. All are invited to attend and are encouraged to prepare a recipe from the cookbook available online.

This event is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Jennifer Brannock, University Libraries' Curator of Rare Books and Mississippiana, at 601.266.4347 or Jennifer.Brannock@usm.edu.