Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking Shows [Paperback]

Announced — Publishers Weekly, January 26, 2009

"In this robust roundup, researcher and librarian Collins scours the archives to show how cooking programs throughout the decades reflect America's changing cultural mores. From James Beard to Rachael Ray, TV cooking hosts have brought this intimate brand of entertainment into the home, moving from educating the general public on the finer points of home economics to coaching us on developing our inner creativity. Collins skillfully marshals her research...Readers might be surprised at the role public television played in nurturing the genre, presently evolved into the Food Network's elevation of chefs as celebrities and food akin to porn. Collins's engaging...study finds cooking shows the great leveler in gender, class and lifestyles and with a strong future." —Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly )

"Collins, a college librarian with a lifelong love of cooking shows, gives a decade-by-decade breakdown of the evolution of TV cooking as a dead-accurate social barometer. From providing helpful hints for homemakers in the 1950's, catering to the lavish lifestyles and culinary excess of the 80's and satisfying the celeb-hungry, reality-crazed audience of the new millennium, Collins examines how far cooking programs have gone to adapt their content, style and character to both suit and define various moments in the 20th century. Her thorough research is spiced with anecdotes and personal testimonials from chefs, historians and foodies about the world of TV cooking and the eccentric personalities that populate it." - TIME Magazine

(Dawn Drzal )

(Aram Bakshian Jr. The Wall Street Journal )



"An entertaining look at the history and evolution of television cooking shows. It examines how the shows shifted over time, involving more men and children and mirroring societal changes."
-The Philadelphia Inquirer


"Collins, reared on food television and educated in library science, brings to the table a wealth of personal experience and research. She mined television and print archives to uncover fascinating gems about television cooking-show pioneers. On the set, Beard invented modern elements of food styling still common in food photography, using ink to emphasize the veins in Roquefort cheese and substituting mashed potatoes for ice cream."
-Wilson Quarterly




"[Watching What We Eat] is bound to become the go-to reference for anyone who wants to learn about this important, compelling aspect of food's mass-mediation in the modern age."
-Gastronomica


"What makes [Watching What We Eat] both more interesting and important, however, is not so much a review of all the people and programs, but rather its insignt into such programming as a social barometer of changing American life... Based on extensive interviews as well as archival work, this is a delightfully written record of a type of program all too often overlooked in the past."
-Communication Booknotes Quarterly













Announced – Publishers Weekly, January 26, 2009

“In this robust roundup, researcher and librarian Collins scours the archives to show how cooking programs throughout the decades reflect America’s changing cultural mores. From James Beard to Rachael Ray, TV cooking hosts have brought this intimate brand of entertainment into the home, moving from educating the general public on the finer points of home economics to coaching us on developing our inner creativity. Collins skillfully marshals her research…Readers might be surprised at the role public television played in nurturing the genre, presently evolved into the Food Network’s elevation of chefs as celebrities and food akin to porn. Collins’s engaging…study finds cooking shows the great leveler in gender, class and lifestyles and with a strong future.” –Publishers Weekly (Sanford Lakoff Publishers Weekly )

“Collins, a college librarian with a lifelong love of cooking shows, gives a decade-by-decade breakdown of the evolution of TV cooking as a dead-accurate social barometer. From providing helpful hints for homemakers in the 1950's, catering to the lavish lifestyles and culinary excess of the 80's and satisfying the celeb-hungry, reality-crazed audience of the new millennium, Collins examines how far cooking programs have gone to adapt their content, style and character to both suit and define various moments in the 20th century. Her thorough research is spiced with anecdotes and personal testimonials from chefs, historians and foodies about the world of TV cooking and the eccentric personalities that populate it.” - TIME Magazine

(Sanford Lakoff )

(Sanford Lakoff The Wall Street Journal )

"[Watching What We Eat] is bound to become the go-to reference for anyone who wants to learn about this important, compelling aspect of food’s mass-mediation in the modern age."
-Gastronomica