Maybe it's better to have her photo there on the shelf as a sort of shrine to go to for inspiration when confused about what to make for dinner. One can go to aisle 12, do a micronovena in front of her box, and go forth with your 30 minute meal for the day. Looking over a couple of these books they could've used a concept like this.

Looking back over them though I can see how American cooking has come a long way. I sometimes think the designer approach to food that we have now with celebrity chefs is overdone. The competitions are interesting to a point, they do encourage the participants to push the envelop but at the end of the day they exist to sell products and add to the pseudo celebrity chef culture we have today. Nothing against Rachel Ray,I like her, but I really don't need to see her photo as I choose soup stock off in the supermarket. Is she somehow secretly watching me as I choose Swanson?

I love kitsch. It's such a fine line between something good and something tacky. When the line is hit smack dab on, it's almost high art. When the line is crossed, it resembles something on Bravo. I recently came across a cook book collection that I could pick and choose which books I wanted. Not really spending a whole lot of time reading them, I picked the copies that had the most kitsch potential based on their look and layout. Now that I have spent sometime with them, I can honestly say they crossed the line and even Bravo would reject them.

The first book, Around The World Gourmet Cookbook, by Fanny Todd Mitchell and originally entitled Pleasures of a Gourmet according to the dust jacket was published in 1961. The illustrations were done by her son, Peter Mitchell a painter and world traveller like the author. The book is a collection of recipes from the author's grandparents which includes recipes from the Victorian era, from her mother and St, Louis where the author is originally from, Russia, from a friend in Vienna, from a friend in France, and a friend form Jaffa who was assisted by and this is a direct quote from page 76;

".. by Jameeleh, a hunchback who had been his nurse. She was incredible gentle in her ways; it was like working with a butterfly."

"Instant potato products, now waiting for you on your grocer's shelves, are one of the wonders of our times."

It was from her friend in Jaffa that she got the recipe for Homos, yes you read that right, Homos. I didn't know there were recipes for that. I thought people were born that way. I was. It's really a recipe for Humus. Perhaps a typo, perhaps a reflection of the time before political correctness came in and raised awareness about some things. Hunchback and Homos, ah yes the simpler times.To go on, and yes I must, there are recipes from a river plantation in Virginia, a gallery on Fifty-seventh street in New York, and recipes from another friend a chef named Pagani who had a restaurant in New York. There's one recipe that instructs to cool something so that you can keep your thumb in it for 10 seconds. A bit of a dangerous learning curve there.And then there is page 133 with the recipe Calypso Chick, which is a recipe for a version of fried chicken where your marinate the chicken in egg whites with lime juice, grated onions and cayenne before you flour and fry. It's a mess but what's worse is the illustration above the recipe. It's a woman whose skin tone is 100% black with each of her hands in opposite ends of a chicken. With the recipe title below it looks bad and slightly offensive. I doubt any offense was meant by this, but having designed 3 cookbooks I can say this would not fly today. The recipe is awful by the way. Overall, the recipes contained in this book are not impressive. The ingredients, the methods for preparation and the end results are equally mediocre. I tried a few other then the Calypso Chick, and they just don't work.The next cookbook is The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, published in 1963. Growing up, this book was my go to source in my mom's collection. While I learned a lot from my mom, I learned a good deal from this book. The recipes are classic, easy to read, and there's a wealth of information about the process of cooking. There is one fascinating piece that has become my favorite piece in the book. It's from page 392 and is subtitled The Instant Potato Family. Here's the first line of the paragraph;

Ranks right up there with the Great Pyramids. The passage goes on about the various kinds of instant potatoes, mashed, au gratin etc, and closes with the chores are all done for you, ta da. All in all, the book is like a rose between two thorns in this post.

As we jump the shark and ride to 1967 and the final book for today, Cooking with a Flair by Madeline B. McMenzie we are drawn into a world of Ripe Olive Sandwiches. Congealed Fruit Salad, and Jello molds by the dozen. Is this the result of the counter culture that was stating to take hold in American culture? After reading this book, I am convinced that judging a book by it's cover is never a good idea. Even if it's kitschy.Could you see Martha, Paula, Rachel or Bobby with a Jello mold salad on their shows? While I believe Martha could pull it off, she's clever in reinventing something to make it work, I doubt I'll be seeing her do so any time soon. And rightfully so.So the next time you're out at the supermarket, take a moment to reflect on the the extended instant potato family, and the wonder that is. And while passing the the stock shelves, say hello to Rachel peeking out between the Swanson and Progresso brands. They represent the past and the present culture of food.