Jonathan Deutsch

“PLEASE PASS THE CHICKEN TITS”: RETHINKING MEN AND COOKING AT AN URBAN FIREHOUSE

Abstract Women, for centuries, have been the primary cooks and nurturers in most cultures. Men rarely represent family primary food providers. My interest in this study lies in what happens when men who are not food professionals develop into this role of primary cooks for a group of people; in this case, the men of an urban firehouse. Men in this scenario perform in roles typically ascribed to both men and women, and when a woman is involved, her presence is mitigated. I found that the men created a unique food system, and while each brought intact a value system and ethnic heritage to the table, these packages became negotiated, most powerfully in the kitchen and at meals. I was interested in how these men performed in roles that, in our mass consciousness and popular culture, we often ascribe to women. How do they shop, cook, and eat? How do they feel about what they are doing? How and why do they choose to cook? What issues do they face with regard to their identity as men, and how does this influence their food choices, cooking, and eating? Firehouse cooks perform domesticity by relying on multiple versions of masculinity at home and in the fire station.

Eat Me Up

Hauck-Lawsons concept of food voice argues that what a person chooses to eat can make powerful statements about identity. In my dissertation fieldwork, a qualitative comparative case study of amateur male cooks, an urban firehouse and a competition barbecue team, I expected that the food voice would be powerful and prevalent. Since men are often identified as taciturn, I expected to draw heavily on their food voices in order to further analyze their communication. I found instead that in the case of the firefighters their food voice at first glance bore little resemblance to their spoken voice as it related to their experiences with food. Their food voices were not attempting to reinforce the spoken voices of the firefighters, but rather shouted over the spoken voices to express what the men were really saying, a food voice rhetoric of nurturing amidst a hyper-masculine spoken voice.

Advancing Multicultural Education in Hospitality Education Through the Use of Food Studies Curricula

Administrators at institutions of higher learning are encouraging more classes and contexts in the area of multicultural education. Given the diversity of employees in the hospitality field, it can be argued that the needs for multicultural understanding and sensitivity are as great as in any other field. The emerging discipline of food studies may offer educators tools for enhancing multicultural understanding and education in their classrooms. The discipline of food studies is discussed and examples of how it might work in the hospitality classroom are given.