Cullman Center Institute for Teachers: The View from the Kitchen with Laura Shapiro

The View from the Kitchen with Laura Shapiro

This seminar will focus on three culinary icons who span the 20th century: Betty Crocker, Julia Child, and Alice Waters. Their influence can be seen in every corner of America's relationship with food, yet each worked very differently to reach her audience. Betty Crocker, invented by the advertising industry, communicated through the imagination. Julia Child, a powerfully charismatic teacher, communicated through television. And Alice Waters, whom most Americans wouldn't recognize on the street despite her famous name, has communicated through ideas. We'll examine the cultural moments that gave rise to each of these women, as well as their careers, their recipes, and their impact across generations and into the future.

Laura Shapiro has written for many publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Newsweek Her books include Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century; Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America; and Julia Child, which won the International Association of Culinary Professionals award for literary food writing. She was a Cullman Center Fellow in 2009-2010. 

This seminar is not open to the public. It is only for teachers who have applied and been accepted into the class.