Cooking Up the Nation

This groundbreaking work examines how Spanish national identity was forged through cookbooks and culinary texts during a pivotal period of nation-building. Anderson meticulously analyzes how writers like Emilia Pardo Bazán and Mariano Pardo de Figueroa used recipes and food writing to create a unified concept of Spanish cuisine, paralleling political efforts to consolidate national identity. The book reveals how seemingly simple cookbooks became powerful tools for cultural unification, documenting the textual construction of a shared culinary heritage that transcended regional differences. This is the first comprehensive study of how Spain's national cuisine was literally written into existence during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Anderson's research stands out by treating culinary texts as serious cultural documents worthy of scholarly attention, connecting gastronomy to broader nation-building projects. Readers interested in food studies, Spanish history, and cultural nationalism will find compelling insights into how everyday cooking practices became imbued with political meaning. The book demonstrates how the kitchen became a site for negotiating national identity, making it essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the relationship between food culture and political unity. Anderson successfully shows that the story of Spanish cuisine is inseparable from the story of Spain itself.