Managing Family Food Consumption: Going Beyond Gender in the Kitchen

How have food identities and practices in upper middle class homes responded to foodie culture? While the majority of the sociological literature focuses on gendered divisions of labor in the kitchen, food security, and healthy eating, my research focuses on how foodie culture discourse has entered the home and shaped food identities and practice. My sample consists of interviews with thirteen parents, both mothers and fathers, with at least one child in the tween age range. Using grounded theory, I analyzed and coded the data for recurring themes. I then divided the participants into two groups based on how they discussed their identity as it relates to food; Group 1 viewed food work as a hobby while Group 2 viewed food work as a chore. My findings include themes of the discussion of food identity, nutritional discourse knowledge, shopping practices, defensive moments, feeding strategies, and fathers who cook. My study demonstrates that race, ethnicity, gender, class, nutritional discourse knowledge, time, and parenting style all play an important role in the formation of food identity