The Free Library of Philadelphia has initiated a series of workshops on culinary literacy . Now this is really cool. "Our mission is two-fold: The first part is teaching literacy skills through cooking, and the second part is exploring culinary literacy." Recipes are a window to math and reading, but they also are the missing link in our current society to health and wellness. "Culinary literacy" means an awareness of the advantages of fresh food, of cooking "from scratch." In a sense, it is the opposite of 20th century food science -- the Minneapolis labs of Pillsbury where my aunt worked after college to make new recipes and to invent ways to utilize baking "products" (see here for photos of the Mill City Museum, including the "Baking Lab"). As I discovered this spring in my course on Russia and cuisine, reading recipes can be a great access point to culture. For my students, it was about vocabulary and grammar...
A blog about travel and staying put, reading and writing, food and food for thought.