Scan barcode
A review by shanaqui
Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain by Pen Vogler
challenging
informative
slow-paced
2.0
Perhaps it's not a surprise that a book purporting to be a history of food and class in Britain does itself verge into snobbery now and then, but I was a little annoyed by it all the same. You can feel the judgement dripping off Vogler in what she includes and what she doesn't -- and for the most part, it's not about British food at all, but the food that English people will eat. A single token reference to bara brith, a few potatoes and a quotation or two from Sir Walter Scott don't make this British. I think there's more about French cuisine here than Welsh, Scottish or Irish.
There are some interesting titbits here, but I found the format of the book really annoying -- you really don't have to link each chapter to the next through a tenuous lead-in, and you really don't need to make me hop around the book to read other sections.
I don't know from personal experience whether all of her research is correct, though I saw one or two reviews on Goodreads suggest that she's a bit off base about some things. She does at least have a fairly exhaustive set of references, should you want to look something else up.
I found this, in the end, surprisingly tedious for something that so clearly catered to my current, randomly acquired interest in food history. I was riveted by the history of white bread in America, so it's not the subject that's lacking here -- it's the delivery.
There are some interesting titbits here, but I found the format of the book really annoying -- you really don't have to link each chapter to the next through a tenuous lead-in, and you really don't need to make me hop around the book to read other sections.
I don't know from personal experience whether all of her research is correct, though I saw one or two reviews on Goodreads suggest that she's a bit off base about some things. She does at least have a fairly exhaustive set of references, should you want to look something else up.
I found this, in the end, surprisingly tedious for something that so clearly catered to my current, randomly acquired interest in food history. I was riveted by the history of white bread in America, so it's not the subject that's lacking here -- it's the delivery.
Content Warnings
Discussion of classism, both critical and unknowingly buying in and committing it.