Conference article

In popular UK commentary and much academic and policy discussion; home-cooking ‘from scratch’; from ‘real’; ‘non-prepared foods’ is viewed as grounded in learned knowledge; skilful and vital to family well-being and identity. Using ‘pre-prepared’ ‘convenience foods’ on the other hand is usually portrayed oppositionally; as lacking in skill; individualistic and atomising. ‘Pre-prepared foods’ are regularly presented as destroying processes of acquiring cooking skills; handing down food cultures and connecting generations. Parents who can’t cook cannot pass on food knowledge and abilities to their children. Drawing on research that provides insight into the different ways of knowing; approaching and practising cooking this paper will challenge current discourse. It will argue that ‘convenience foods’ play an important role in the intergenerational transference of skills; that ‘convenience foods’ can be seen as inclusive and connecting.

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