THE CHEF FROM HELL

The 1950's was a time of great anxiety.  Many folks feared world annihilation.  Much of American culture was a reaction to this.  While some parts of the post World War II culture, such as music and fashion, contained a "revolutionary" quality, the food that Americans enjoyed during the 50's had an escapist quality to it.  A lot of the dishes from this era are often referred to as comfort food.  An antidote for the pressures of the Atomic Age?  Maybe so. 

With the advent of suburbs such as Levittown (which is in Long Island, where I live), American families now had larger kitchens in which to prepare meals.  Irony rears its ugly head as history seems to indicate that, even though home cooks had better kitchen to work in, people seemed to prefer using manufactured food products, such as cake mixes, and ready-to-eat processed foods.  Canned soups and meats along with frozen vegetables were used to assemble casseroles which, at the time, were considered "fancy" dishes. 

The structure of family meals was transfromed with the popularity of television as many families coordinated mealtime activities the time that their favorite tv shows aired.  In 1952, Swanson & Sons marketed the first frozen tv dinners.  In its first year on the market, 5,000 dinners were sold.  Over the next year, the Swanson company sold a whopping 10,000,000 frozen tv dinners.  The dining habits and food traditions of Americans were rapidly  altered by new technology and methods of food production. 

During the 1950's, one interesting change in the social/sexual order took place when charcoal grills and backyard barbecues became the rage and men got involved in the preparation of the family meal. 

In 1955, the first McDonald's franchise opened in a suburb of Chicago.  The American family was now able to eat faster and cheaper than they could at home.

Ah, yes.  In the slow mist of a mushroom cloud, the American culinary landscape had changed forever.