Baking as Biography: A Life Story in Recipes

by Diane Tye

Hidden among the simple lists of ingredients and directions for everyday foods are surprising stories. In Baking as Biography, Diane Tye considers her mother's recipe collection, reading between the lines of the aging index cards to provide a candid and nuanced portrait of one woman's life as mother, minister's wife, and participant in local Maritime women's networks.

Genres: Nonfiction, Foodie, Food

288 pages, Hardcover

First published August 10, 2010

About the author

Diane is a Professor Emerita of Folklore, Memorial University.

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...Baking scones needed no special occassion - 'there's not too many left' was enough of a prompt."

Diane Tye, a folklorist, discovers a box of her mother's recipes, and jumps off from there to explore baking as biography. Her mother was a minister's wife and raised several children while frequently entertaining, in the time after World War II.

"Women of my mother's generation were expected to nurture their families with a filled cookie jar and, at the same time, to maintain a slim figure."

How much can be learned from a woman's recipe collection? Tye writes several long chapters heavily steeped in research from the field of folklore, a field I dipped into until I dropped my PhD program. Nye actually cites a few names I studied with, so she's the real deal. ;)

The first chapter is about how recipes write a life, the second is about childraising through food, the third is about church culture, particularly that of the women who socialize and fundraise but don't have any tangible power in that setting and in that era, a chapter on feminism (including a section titled "Baking as Feminist Coding," to give you a sense of it, and a conclusion that ties in the place the recipes hold now in her own family.

"By producing food that is familiar to the older members of the family, I introduce it to the next generation. ... This responsibility has fallen to me, although I am no longer clear how it came to be negotiated. Have I taken it on, or was it given to me?"

I was also interested in reading it since I'm reading Canada and Alaska this year, and foodways are such a part of it, and some of the recipes that are given to Tye's mother by other bakers are very much of the culture and time of the Maritime provinces (Scottish heritage= oat cakes and scones, lots of newly available commercial products like graham crackers and Jell-O, etc.) I also learned some fun word-choice anomalies, like using the word "lunch" for a daily late-night snack, used all over Prince Edward Island.

But it was a bit of a struggle to read. I think Tye didn't know how to write about folklore without doing it in the scholarly way in which she is accustomed, so there are long paragraphs with parenthetical citations that establish her concepts in the field. This is more appropriate in a dissertation or scholarly article than in a biography or foodways type book, and I think most people wouldn't probably wade through it. I also felt that the chapter on feminism, etc., placed an interpretation on her mother's generation that I'm not sure felt all that truthful. I think many women in that era were not being subversive in their baking, they just did it as one more thing among many things that were saturated in expectation and gender role. So sometimes the imposition of a framework on top of the story, without the actual of her voice of her mother there to give her opinion on it, was a bit extreme. I did, however, enjoy the quotes from L.M. Montgomery, railing against all the baking she was expected to do when she had WORK to do. Ha!

I did appreciate the interviews she did with her father and siblings, and some others from the town. And it is incredibly well researched, to be sure, so you will learn about her mother's recipes alongside Maritime foodways culture, general concepts of recipes and womens' roles and the place of food within society. It won't be for everyone.

[Susan Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this unusual book, Diane Tye reads her mother's recipes as if they were her mother's biography, using the techniques of folklore and feminist studies. I picked up this book because I am writing about my family's food in the 1950s, and am finding that it provides some new insights into the reasons for the food my mother put on our table and allows me to see her in the larger context of extended family and community. Recommended for folklore, women's studies collections.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather than a true memoir, the author uses her mother’s recipes as means to explore not only her mother’s life, but the cultural norms of her mother’s generation. As she discusses the recipes, she puts her mother’s cooking in the context of her family’s memories, showing the different perspectives that her brother, deaf sister, and father had of her mother’s baking. This will appeal more to those who are interested in a more academic approach rather than a warm-hearted remembrance.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written memoir, scholarly text and recipe book - the life of a minister's wife, a mother and a woman in 1950s Canadian maritime provinces. Community and meal preparation, obligation and duty. A daughter's tribute to her mother, who died before she was appreciated - and perhaps fully analyzed. Great bibliography and index.

[Cara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little more textbook than biography, but had value.

[Emily-Jane Orford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diane Tye is an academic. She is a leading researcher and a professor in women's studies. She wrote her mother's story as a combination of memoir and academic study including quotes from leading theorists discussing why women do the things that they do, especially baking. It was all very interesting. However, like any other academic text, it was rather dry at times and very repetitive. Each chapter followed the dissertation style of stating the thesis, defending the thesis, and concluding the thesis. I did enjoy the quotes from family members and the anecdotal stories/memories of Diane's mother and her baking regimen. It is an interesting read. Reviewed by award-winning author of "The Whistling Bishop", Emily-Jane Hills Orford.

[Carol Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating exploration of the meaning of women's baking activities/recipe collections especially in the 1950s to 1970s. The author uses her memories of her own mother, the wife of a United Church minister in the Maritime provinces, and her mother's old recipes for cookies, squares, loaves, etc. to get glimpses of middle-class women's lives during that time. Such activities have generally been considered beneath consideration for study, trivial and uninteresting. Diane Tye proves it isn't so.

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could have been a fun read if the author didn't spend so much time quoting every paragraph. I do not think that everytime she starts with "My father..." that you need to quote his interview at the end.

Also, she gets caught up in other people's theroies of family values instead of telling the simple story of her mother through baking.

[Charmaine]

This is such a fantastic book...an ethnographic look at recipes, food, traditions, gender, economics...loving it so far and will always treasure my collection.