Summary of Nourishing Arts by Stephanie Chu

In “the Nourishing Arts”, authors Michel de Certeau and Luce Giard argues the significance of French women in cooking, which is normally prospected as boring and repetitive. Certeau and Giard believe that culinary cooking requires intelligent and imagination. They argue people’s contradiction feelings toward culinary practices. For example, french cuisine is appraised but people judge this work to be “ repetitive and monotonous”. Therefore, the immense amount of work that women have to do: cooking, maintaining household goods and family bodies are not socially recognized.
Continuing with their argument, they state that female tasks are a cultural order. For instance, every women has her own style, variations and inventions in preparing food. Moreover, culinary production requires techniques and a multiple memory. Examples include a programming mind which one has to “ calculate both preparation and cooking time” and sensory perception which the “ smell lets one know if the cooking is coming along”. Thus, the vocation of cooking and “ manipulating ordinary things” needs a “ very ordinary intelligence”.
Certeau and Giard also contend the vulnerability of humans that ruin their own health by having deficient or excessive diets. They point out that the nourishment of food nutrients of people are resulted from cultured food-stuffs instead of pure dietary principles. They quote facts from epidemiology like the increased cardiovascular diseases are related to diets too rich in fats, and cancer in intestines are “ in correlation with impoverishment of diets rich in cellulose and vegetable fiber”. This shows that the nutrients intake of humans depend on their national traditions.
Lastly, Certeau and Giard relate how the organizer of the family (women) plans the family meal according to its country’s tradition. They disapprove the fact that nobody appreciates the hard work of women who use their imagination to integrate their knowledge of food in providing the best nourishment to their family. In conclusion, Certeau and Giard point out the culinary work that women perform require imagination, intelligence and should be appreciated.