ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that food, can be viewed as an area of cultural contestation, allowing different discussants to draw up, reflect on or reject blueprints for possible futures, and that cookbooks explicate and illustrate such visions. By examining the ways in which authors of Danish cookbooks published in the years 1952-1973 adapted recipes from France and the US. The chapter explores how these culinary proto and antitypes have been employed to discuss the direction of Danish food culture at the brink of a new era. Besides pointing to different expectations related to gender. It also shows how perceptions of American and French food served as a pretext for developing two distinct modes of consumer empowerment, underlining the broad political significance of food. Following that line of research, it also argues that cookbooks should first and foremost be read as a testament to the visions of its creator.
