AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.

A Man in the Kitchen.(father's cooking and his marriage)

The New Yorker

| September 03, 2007 | Antrim, Donald | COPYRIGHT 2007 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)Copyright

When I was a boy, it was said in my family that my mother, an otherwise respectable cook, had prepared for my father, during the first days of their marriage, a very bad dish. The dish was a hot tuna-andmayonnaise casserole with potato chips as a decorative garnish. It was this tuna casserole that had, as it were, driven my father to teach himself to cook. Over time, the story of the tuna casserole took on the status and weight of Received History; it became my father's explanation and alibi--"Baked mayonnaise! I had to take action!"--for his dominion over our kitchen. Looking back, I can see that the story also functioned as an origin narrative; it united us--my mother, my father, my sister, and me--in lighthearted understanding of the triumph of bluegrass gentility over whatever in our natures could be seen as vulgar and Appalachian. (My father's people were from Virginia, my mother's from East Tennessee.)

By the late nineteen-sixties, when we were living on a farm outside Charlottesville, cooking had almost become my father's second occupation, after teaching literature at the University of Virginia. On weekday afternoons, he left his campus office and, before coming home, drove his rounds between markets and shops. On Saturdays, an all-day shopping trip might take place. After we moved to Miami, in 1970, my sister began to accompany him on grocery missions that took them from one district to another: fish and meat were in Coral Gables; wine was in Coconut Grove; and then it was off to South Miami for olive oil, tomatoes, and chocolate for a mousse. My father was an early adopter of the Cuisinart, and an early convert to homemade pasta; the backs of chairs in our house could often be found draped with waxed paper and drying fettuccine.

In the evening, while working in the kitchen, my father drank Martinis. On weekdays at around seven, my mother would return from her job teaching fashion history and costume design at Miami-Dade Community College; her first actions were always to light a cigarette and pick up the bourbon bottle that sat on the kitchen counter. The brief spells of tranquillity that followed the first swallows of her first drink gave way, most nights, to frightening tirades. The fights were often triggered by some aspect of dinner itself, frequently its presentation--something that my father, a student of the magazine Gourmet, with its high-gloss ...

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, journals, and more
High-risk subsequent births among co-residential couples: the role of fathers,...
Magazine article from: Fathering Moore, Kristin A. Ryan, Suzanne Manlove, Jennifer Mincieli, Lisa Schelar, Erin January 1, 2009 700+ words
...incorporate data from fathers and mothers to assess characteristics...relationships. Both fathers' and mothers' pregnancy intentions...as high if only the father intended the birth of...intended by both the mother and father. High...
Daughter learned value of work Father, mother set example for how to achieve...
Newspaper article from: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel TANNETTE JOHNSON-ELIE April 18, 1996 700+ words
...of her parents. Her father was a labor relations executive; her mother was a nurse. "My dad...work ethic. Gronik's mother spent many years as a...three children. "My father worked at Ladish Co...engineering department. My mother did everything from working...
Fathers, Mothers, and Family Structure: Family Trajectories, Parent Gender, and...
Magazine article from: Journal of Marriage and Family Heard, Holly E May 1, 2007 700+ words
...families live with single mothers (Kreider & Fields...increase in single-father families (Eggebeen...without biological mothers (Sousa & Sorensen...Are the effects of mother absence similar to those of father absence? School Engagement...
BERCIK FULFILLS FAMILY TRADITION; FOLLOWS FATHER, MOTHER AS MAYOR
Newspaper article from: Post-Tribune (IN) November 4, 1987 700+ words
...Bercik just talked to his mother, Mary Bercik, who was...as mayor. Robert's father was elected in 1954...nation to have had a mother, a father and a son all elected...there were no other mother, father and son combinations...
Lorton man gets life for 3 killings: Stabbed his father, mother,...
Newspaper article from: The Washington Times Wagner, Arlo December 11, 1999 700+ words
...terms for killing his father, mother and grandfather and...sentence for the mother's murder to be...sentences for the father's and grandfather...s 64-year-old father, Jimmy was the first...is what he did his mother," Mr. Horan said...
Family gunning for success: On eve of deer season, father, mother and son have...
Newspaper article from: Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, PA) November 27, 2006 700+ words
...Jr. made a career out of his father's pastime. As he entered...King's College in 1988, his father, Joseph Lasecki Sr., opened...Sunday, the Laseckis, including mother and financial manager Paulette...early in life, Lasecki and his father, 37 and 62 respectively, both...
CHILDREN HAVE RIGHTS TO FATHERS, MOTHERS.(MAIN)
Newspaper article from: Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) May 14, 1996 700+ words
...approach would be to recognize that divorced fathers and out-of-wedlock fathers will continue abandoning their children...protect the rights of our children to have fathers as well as mothers. This could be achieved through passage...
After the Founding Father: Mother, Son Carry on Duncan-Williams Legacy.
Magazine article from: The Bond Buyer DeSue, Tedra December 27, 2001 700+ words
...going, but to build on his father's accomplishments. Today, mother and son run one of the largest...a boy, is president and his mother is chairwoman. Over the years...and UBS/PaineWebber. His mother agrees. "We don't want to...
For more facts and information, see all results
©2009 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
About us | FAQs | Contact us | Privacy policy | Terms and conditions
Other Gale sites: Encyclopedia.com | HighBeam Research | Acquire Content | Books & Authors | Goliath | MovieRetriever | Smart QandA