The Women in God's Kitchen: Cooking, Eating and Spiritual Writings - Hardcover

Cristina Mazzoni

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826417604 ISBN 13: 9780826417602

Publisher: Continuum, 2005

Synopsis

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once noted that 'nunneries in the old days were veritable storehouses of the most delectable tidbits.' Perhaps that is why the much-maligned Lucrezia Borgia is said to have truly felt at home only in the company of pious cloistered nuns. In his landmark study, Holy Anorexia, Rudolph Bell focused his attention on holy women who survived on nothing but the eucharistic wafer. Cristina Mazzoni, taking the opposite tack, savors the food writings and images of a broad spectrum of Catholic saints and holy women. A native of Italy and a splendid cook herself, Mazzoni accords due attention to her fellow countrywomen, as well she should given the importance of Italian cookery (Catherine of Genoa, Angela of Foligno, Gemma Galgani), but includes numerous other holy women and their cuisines as well: Germany (Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schönau, and Margaret Ebner), France (Margaret Mary Alacoque, Thérèse of Lisieux), Spain (Teresa of Avila), colonial South America (Sor Juana Inès de la Cruz), England (Margery Kempe), and even the United States (Elizabeth Ann Seton, who was the first person born in the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church). In her Introduction, Mazzoni invites the reader 'to seek out and savor with me...the food concocted, dished out, bitten into, tasted, and swallowed in the writings of holy women: food that may be mundane, unexceptional, and commonplace, but food that may also be delicious, nutritious, indulgent, or healthful. Whether in the form of stockfish and stew or chocolate and jam, whether cooked as lasagna with greens or curdled into a fine or bitter cheese, this foodthrough metaphors and similes, through anecdotes and memoriesleads to mystical connections, underlines the presence of meaning even, or especially, in the midst of seeming meaninglessness, and leads us to share in the pleasure of cooking, eating, and learning at a divine table in God's kitchen.'

About this title

Review:

"Christina Mazzoni's homey, understated approach in The Women in God's Kitchen belies grand intentions and heterodox ideas...Her breadth of vision and expertise is as expansive as her intentions...Scholars of food culture, literature, religion, and women's studies in search of a scholarly and nuanced version of the interplay among food, religion, women, and sensuality should read Mazzoni's book. It fits the zeitgeist of the new millennium." -Food and Foodways Magazine--Sanford Lakoff

Synopsis:

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once noted that 'nunneries in the old days were veritable storehouses of the most delectable tidbits.' Perhaps that is why the much-maligned Lucrezia Borgia is said to have truly felt at home only in the company of pious cloistered nuns. Cristina Mazzoni savours the food writings and images of a broad spectrum of Catholic saints and holy women. A native of Italy and a splendid cook herself, Mazzoni accords due attention to her fellow countrywomen, as well she should given the importance of Italian cookery (Catherine of Genoa, Angela of Foligno, Gemma Galgani), but includes numerous other holy women and their cuisines as well: Germany and the Low Countries (Hildegard and Hadewijch, Elisabeth of Schonau), France (Margaret Mary Alacoque, Therese of Lisieux), Spain (Teresa of Avila), colonial South America (Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz), England (Margery Kemp), and the first person in the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, Elisabeth Ann Seton. One of the most touching scenes in the book has Mrs. Seton feeding her dying husband in a lazaretto near Livorno.

Because of his deteriorating health, she had taken him and their oldest child to Italy for its sunny, salubrious climate. But a yellow fever epidemic in New York caused them to be quarantined in a cold, damp, smoky building. He died a few days after their month-long quarantine. Included in the book (for how could it not be?) is a wonderful meditation on that sweet and sour Scandinavian Lutheran movie celebrating the joys of French Catholic cuisine: Babette's Feast.

About this edition

• Publisher: Continuum
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0826417604
• ISBN 13: 9780826417602
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232