Barbarians at the Plate
You have Domino’s Pizza on speed dial, and laundry piled high on your dining table. Your kids think Veggie Booty is one of the basic food groups. You spend more time in the car than in the kitchen.
You’re not alone.
The home-cooked family meal is quickly becoming a thing of the past. A recent survey conducted by the University of Minnesota shows that the number of American families who regularly eat dinner together has dropped by more than one-third since 1970, as busy parents opt instead for the convenience of restaurant meals or takeout in front of the television. But Marialisa Calta, a food writer and working mother, is on a mission to turn back the clock. And while encouraging American women to unleash their inner Betty Crocker might not seem progressive, Calta’s serious commitment to helping parents embrace domesticity, at the dinner table at least, has landed her in the ranks of a quiet revolution taking place in small towns and cities across the country. Backed by a spate of studies showing that children who routinely eat dinner with their families not only perform better in school but are also less vulnerable to depression, drug and alcohol addiction and eating disorders, a Columbia University substance abuse counseling center (CASA) has even set aside an official holiday — Sept. 26 — devoted to getting parents and kids eating together.
Calta’s new book, “Barbarians at the Plate: Taming and Feeding the Modern American Family,” takes readers into the kitchens and dining rooms of a dozen families across the country as they attempt to make a healthy, home-cooked meal every (well, almost every) night. With unpretentious advice and simple menus drawing on pantry staples such as beans, chicken stock and pasta (and featuring a special section on that Nixon-era workhorse, the slow cooker), “Barbarians” offers an antidote to the fussy, labor-intensive Martha Stewart mentality that intimidates many home cooks. “You don’t have to chain yourself to the stove,” she writes. “If you are organized enough to get your tired self dressed and to work every day you have the tools to get food on the table.” Around that table, Calta believes, parents and children share much more than food — they exchange stories, learn about each other’s lives, and hone social graces that serve them in school and beyond.
Sarah Karnasiewicz | Salon (read more. . .)