A Bite Off Mama's Plate: Mothers' and Daughters' Connections Through Food

Browse through the list of books that come out each year on women and food. The vast majority treat food as the enemy of women everywhere, either by pitching (or criticizing) the latest diet fad or by focusing on such problems as eating disorders, and parents' implication in them. Taking a different path, Miriam Meyers celebrates the positiverole that food plays in women's lives, and in the relationship between mother and daughter.

Despite the changes wrought by modern technology, the provision of food remains necessary to sustain physical, social, religious, and familial life. The idealized homemaker of the 1950s, working ceaselessly to achieve the perfectly clean home and perfectly arranged food, has all but disappeared from the American scene. While the ways we acquire and prepare our food has shifted, women still have primary responsibility for home food management, despite their increasing pursuit of other roles. With that responsibility comes considerable work, but it also affords women in families a special opportunity for companionship, communication, learning, and inspiration.

Beginning with a look at food's place in the greater family, A Bite Off Mama's Plateexplores the connections mothers and daughters enjoy in the kitchen and beyond. To illuminate those links, Meyers combines original research, encompassing focus groups, interviews, and a national survey, with personal memoir and a wide range of other sources. She shows, in women's own voices, how food offers, more than just nourishment for the body, something for the mind, heart, and soul.