Gabaccia details in his article, “Food Fights and American Values”, how the concern for healthier, American eating amongst immigrants provoked a need to create a national cuisine for foreigners, and native-borns, to aspire to. After a wave of immigration in the late 19th century, Gabaccia notes how immigrants had not yet assimilated to American culinary traditions because they were ignorant of the nutritious benefits of such a diet on a working individual. However, it is interesting to read that America had yet to outline a proper “American” diet and so Americans tried to halt the production of foreign foods and customs. As “domestic science” developed, it is amusing to see the true American way evident in the guideline to producing the highest rate of “efficiency, careful planning, and measurement” in regards to food production.
-Roseann Weick
