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Secrets from the Greek Kitchen

Cooking, Skill, and Everyday Life on an Aegean Island
by David E. Sutton (Author)
Hardcover Paperback eBook
Price: $34.95 / £30.00
Publication Date: Sep 2014
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9780520959309
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 15 b/w
Series:
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About the Book

Secrets from the Greek Kitchen explores how cooking skills, practices, and knowledge on the island of Kalymnos are reinforced or transformed by contemporary events. Based on more than twenty years of research and the author’s videos of everyday cooking techniques, this rich ethnography treats the kitchen as an environment in which people pursue tasks, display expertise, and confront culturally defined risks.

Kalymnian islanders, both women and men, use food as a way of evoking personal and collective memory, creating an elaborate discourse on ingredients, tastes, and recipes. Author David E. Sutton 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, to reveal new perspectives on the anthropology of everyday living.

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.

Table 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

Reviews

"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."
— Graduate Journal of Food Studies
“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

 

Media

1. “Cutting Medley” (2005). Katerina Kardoulia cutting potatoes for a stew, Nina Papamihail cutting an onion for a salad, and Katerina’s granddaughter, called Little Katerina Miha, cutting zucchini for an omelet.

2. “Polykseni Cutting Eggplant” (2008). Polykseni Miha slicing eggplant. To watch this video with subtitles, go to YouTube and turn on closed captioning.

3. “Polykseni Making Mushroom Pies” (2008). Polykseni Miha and the author rolling phyllo dough.

4. “Evdokia Rolling Dough” (2011). Evdokia Passa rolling dough in her restaurant kitchen.

5. “Georgia Rolling Dough” (2001). Georgia Vourneli rolling dough for a leek pie. Video by Michael Hernandez. To watch this video with subtitles, go to YouTube and turn on closed captioning.

6. “Katerina and the Can Opener” (2006). Katerina Kardoulia opening a can of tomato paste.

7. “Nina Making Octopus Stew” (2005). Nina Papamihail preparing an octopus dish in the kitchen of her summer home.

8. “Kitchen Choreography” (2006). Katerina Kardoulia and her daughter, Katina Miha, preparing several dishes for a Lenten meal while negotiating the limited space of Katerina’s kitchen.

9. “Little Katerina Learning Cooking” (2006). Little Katerina Miha preparing a zucchini omelet for the first time, under the direction of her mother, Katina.

10. “Little Katerina Making a Salad” (2008). Little Katerina Miha making a salad for her father in her grandmother’s kitchen.

11. “Little Katerina Describing a New Dish” (2012). Little Katerina Miha describing how she started making her own béchamel sauce instead of buying it from the store, and also how she prepares a dish with rice and vegetables.