moonlog

Food journalist Michael Pollan guests on Fresh Air yet again, this time to speak about the irony that America is obsessed with cooking shows but never cooks at home.

Interesting is how Pollan points out that processed foods originated as re-marketed soldier rations from World War II. And the only way to get housewives to stomach what they perceived to be artificial was to leave something (rather symbolic) of the traditional procedure of preparing food in the box. In the case of bake mixes, Pollan says food manufacturers intentionally left out the egg so housewives could feel like they were actually baking a cake by having to break and stir in an egg into batter.