Insatiable City: Food and Race in New Orleans

by Theresa McCulla

A history of food in the Crescent City that explores race, power, social status, and labor.
 
In Insatiable City , Theresa McCulla probes the overt and covert ways that the production of food and the discourse about it both created and reinforced many strains of inequality in New Orleans, a city significantly defined by its foodways. Tracking the city’s economy from nineteenth-century chattel slavery to twentieth-century tourism, McCulla uses menus, cookbooks, newspapers, postcards, photography, and other material culture to limn the interplay among the production and reception of food, the inscription and reiteration of racial hierarchies, and the constant diminishment and exploitation of working-class people. The consumption of food and people, she shows, was mutually reinforced and deeply intertwined. Yet she also details how enslaved and free people of color in New Orleans used food and drink to carve paths of mobility, stability, autonomy, freedom, profit, and joy. A story of pain and pleasure, labor and leisure, Insatiable City goes far beyond the task of tracing New Orleans's culinary history to focus on how food suffuses culture and our understandings and constructions of race and power.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Sociology, Food

355 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m so happy I was finally able to read Theresa’s book. I’ve been so intrigued for years knowing the topic of her research and it is awesome to read the finished product. This was such a fascinating way to learn about the history of New Orleans cuisine!! Because the main players involved in forming New Orleans food culture were enslaved people, information has to be found in more hidden sources—old advertisements, cookbooks, menus, photographs. It’s weaving together pieces to find the truth. A truly rigorous research effort to tell an important story. Now I want some gumbo!

[Meghan Furey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fullll of records, artwork, artifacts, etc that paints a very vivid of New Orleans and the impact of race on the culinary scene. I felt like I learned so much, from the danger of sugar cane farms to the changes of the French Market to the stereotypes used to advertise Creole and New Orleans cuisine, my cousin does an amazing job story telling history in a way that is digestible and poetic!

[Rian Lancto · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book sheds light on the harsh history that has made New Orleans into strong and resilient city that it is today. Food is always at the base of all cultures and geographic locations. There are deep ties to the slave trade and those can be difficult parts to read. However as with all history it is critical that the voices of all are allowed to speak. New Orleans has such a rich mix of cultures and people who are resilient. It was the most popular port city of it’s time in the United States and this books shows all the mixing of cultures, injustice, cuisines and resilience that made it.

[Julia Hutto · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only criticism of this book was that it at times tried to explain tangentially related pieces of history that it just didn’t have time to cover. I appreciate the connections to things I never would’ve thought of like photography or lunch counter sit ins, but they’re just not within the scope of the book. Otherwise, very good and very interesting look into perhaps the most important piece of New Orleans culture.

[Bert Kaufman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this well researched and thorough examination of the relationship between race and food in New Orleans from its earliest days as a trading post through the present day.