ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on representation of ‘men’s kitchens’ as either ‘stages’ or ‘home restaurants’ for the showcasing of male cooking skill, or as places devoid of the warmth, comfort and joy stereotypically associated with women’s kitchens. In the late 1970s, British designer Terence Conran suggested that ‘the kitchen mirrors more effectively than any other room in the house the great social changes that have taken place’. While Laura Anderson and Carol Huntingdon either reported, or were observed, using the kitchens in their respective households, both were clear that they regarded it as their husbands’ space. Historically, the kitchen has been perceived as the domain of women with developments in kitchen design occurring in parallel with the changing role of the ‘housewife’ across the twentieth century as she progressed from household manager or economizer, to ‘perfect mother’, liberated worker and then ‘superwoman’.
