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“This is a beautifully written book that transports you into the heart of ordinary, everyday Greek life. David Sutton’s method is innovative and his writing lucid. He draws readers into an intimate ethnographic adventure—an embodied and sensorial cultural immersion—in which they have the sense of inquiring and learning alongside him.”—Laurie Kain Hart, Stinnes Professor of Global Studies and Professor of Anthropology, Haverford College
“Secrets from the Greek Kitchen is yet another fine example of Sutton’s ability to draw our attention to details that matter through insightful ethnography and engaging writing. He brings his informants’ stories to life and unravels the magic behind a world that otherwise might be thought of as familiar, everyday, and insignificant. Once you have read this book you will never again consider cooking as trivial and mundane.”—Eleana Yalouri, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences
List of contents
List of Illustrations
List of Video Examples
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Why Does Greek Food Taste So Good?
1. Emplacing Cooking
2. Tools and Their Users
3. Nina and Irini: Passing the Torch?
4. Mothers, Daughters, and Others: Learning, Transmission, Negotiation
5. Horizontal Transmission: Cooking Shows, Friends, and Other Sources of Knowledge
6. Through the Kitchen Window
Conclusion: So, What Is Cooking?
Epilogue: Cooking (and Eating) in Times of Financial Crisis
Notes
References
Index
About the author
David E. Sutton is Professor of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University. He is the author of Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memories Cast in Stone: The Relevance of the Past in Everyday Life and the coauthor of Hollywood Blockbusters: The Anthropology of Popular Movies.
Summary
Explores how cooking skills, practices, and knowledge on the island of Kalymnos are reinforced or transformed by contemporary events. This book focuses on micropractices in the kitchen, such as the cutting of onions, the use of a can opener, and the rolling of phyllo dough, along with cultural changes, such as the rise of televised cooking shows.
Additional text
"Sutton’s book, impeccably researched and lucidly presented, complicates and challenges this widespread view while also providing the tools and guideposts needed to re-think what it means to cook and the myriad reasons why it matters—in Kalymnos and elsewhere."
