Women’s Voices and Paths from Kitchen to Table (1928-1948)

Abstract

The paper offers an excursus on the contribution of women to the Italian debate on the organization of places dedicated to the preparation and consumption of food in the bourgeois home. The analysis is limited to 1928-1948 and is carried out using four authoritative periodicals: Domus and La Casa bella focused on architecture and applied arts, Fili and Bellezza dedicated respectively to needlework and haute couture. The systematic examination of the monthlies has highlighted the quantity and the characteristics of the contributions written by and dedicated to women in this period. The result is a general picture of “education to domesticity” that is declined in a different way in these editorial contexts and passes through the organization of the space for cooking, the preparation of the table, the choice of recipes and new comforts adapted to the life of the modern family.

Keywords: food, kitchen, modernism, female applied arts, table clothes.