Edible Histories, Cultural Politics : Towards a Canadian Food History

Sophisticated, culturally sensitive, and accessible, __Edible Histories__ will appeal to students, historians, and foodies alike. Contents 5 Illustrations 9 Preface 11 Introduction 15 Part One: Cultural Exchanges and Cuisines in the Contact Zone 45 1 ‘Fit for the Table of the Most Fastidious Epicure’: Culinary Colonialism in the Upper Canadian Contact Zone 45 2 ‘The Snipe Were Good and the Wine Not Bad’: Enabling Public Life for Privileged Men 66 3 The Role of Food in Canadian Expressions of Christianity 84 Part Two: Regional Food Identities and Traditions 99 4 Pine-Clad Hills and Spindrift Swirl: The Character, Persistence, and Significance of Rural Newfoundland Foodways 99 5 Stocking the Root Cellar: Foodscapes in the Peace River Region 108 6 Rational Meals for the Traditional Family: Nutrition in Quebec School Manuals, 1900–1960 123 Part Three: Foodways and Memories in Ethnic and Racial Communities 145 7 ‘We Didn’t Have a Lot of Money, but We Had Food’: Ukrainians and Their Depression-Era Food Memories 145 8 Feeding the Dead: The Ukrainian Food Colossi of the Canadian Prairies 154 9 Toronto’s Multicultured Tongues: Stories of South Asian Cuisines 170 Part Four: Gendering Food in Cookbooks and Family Spaces 187 10 More than ‘Just’ Recipes: Mennonite Cookbooks in Mid-Twentieth-Century North America 187 11 Gefilte Fish and Roast Duck with Orange Slices: A Treasure for My Daughter and the Creation of a Jewish Cultural Orthodoxy in Postwar Montreal 203 12 ‘Tutti a Tavola!’ Feeding the Family in Two Generations of Italian Immigrant Households in Montreal 223 Part Five: Single Food Commodities, Markets, and Cultural Debates 239 13 John Bull and Sons: The Empire Marketing Board and the Creation of a British Imperial Food System 239 14 Spreading Controversy: The Story of Margarine in Quebec 263 Part Six: Protests, Mindful Eating, and the Politics of Food 285 15 The Politics of Milk: Canadian Housewives Organize in the 1930s 285 16 ‘Less Inefficiency, More Milk’: The Politics of Food and the Culture of the English-Canadian University, 1900–1950 300 17 The Granola High: Eating Differently in the Late 1960s and 1970s 319 18 ‘Meat Stinks/Eat Beef Dyke!’ Coming Out as a Vegetarian in the Prairies 340 Part Seven: National Identities and Cultural Spectacles 365 19 Nationalism on the Menu: Three Banquets on the 1939 Royal Tour 365 20 Food Acts and Cultural Politics: Women and the Gendered Dialectics of Culinary Pluralism at the International Institute of Toronto, 1950s–1960s 373 Part Eight: Marketing and Imposing Nutritional Standards 401 21 Vim, Vigour, and Vitality: ‘Power’ Foods for Kids in Canadian Popular Magazines, 1914–1954 401 22 Making and Breaking Canada’s Food Rules: Science, the State, and the Government of Nutrition, 1942–1949 423 23 ‘A National Priority’: Nutrition Canada’s Survey and the Disciplining of Aboriginal Bodies, 1964–1975 447 Contributors 467

Just as the Canada's rich past resists any singular narrative, there is no such thing as a singular Canadian food tradition. This new book explores Canada's diverse food cultures and the varied relationships that Canadians have had historically with food practices in the context of community, region, nation and beyond.

Based on findings from menus, cookbooks, government documents, advertisements, media sources, oral histories, memoirs, and archival collections, Edible Histories offers a veritable feast of original research on Canada's food history and its relationship to culture and politics. This exciting collection explores a wide variety of topics, including urban restaurant culture, ethnic cuisines, and the controversial history of margarine in Canada. It also covers a broad time-span, from early contact between European settlers and First Nations through the end of the twentieth century.

Edible Histories intertwines information of Canada's 'foodways' – the practices and traditions associated with food and food preparation – and stories of immigration, politics, gender, economics, science, medicine and religion. Sophisticated, culturally sensitive, and accessible, Edible Histories will appeal to students, historians, and foodies alike.