ing out o f the kitchen : texts , contexts and debates

This essay revisits prevailing assumptions about the domestic kitchen. While the status of this space and even its existence as a discrete area within the home have become a maater for discussion, the work of cooking located in the kitchen remains a compelling subject within a range of popular cultural forms. We are accustomed to thinking of the kitchen as a scene of routine and ritual, but here I explore its appearances as an improvisatory and rebellious zone. Such possibilities are not necessarily the outcome of shifting practices associated with the postmodern home and its representation. On the contrary, the kitchen has long been a space, both intimate and socially significant, from which to generate arguments about gender, class and nation.