ABSTRACT
Using The Book of Salt as a point of departure for thinking through gender, class, identity, and citizenship, this chapter will provide examples of how communal kitchens in contradistinction to the model of the private cook might provide a more nuanced approach to address questions of domesticity, servitude, and service. The first half of this chapter will explore Truong’s characterization of Binh’s life in Paris as a domestic servant to the famous Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas and the second half will provide an alternate and emerging model of citizenship and community-building—that of the communal kitchen—for rethinking gender, class, and political expression. The arguments put forth in this essay gesture towards a transnational theory of servitude and service and hope to show that feminists and food activities might turn to this space as a potential new site for investigation of gender, class, and political rights.
