9 Unrest and the French Chef: 1960’s

The 1960s were a time of political protests and a rise in race issue awareness. Hippies became the norm, clashing with conservative values popular the decade before. The hippie values rejected the processed food lifestyle of the 1950s, and young people wanted to make their own bread and eat wholegrain and vegetarian foods snubbed by their predecessors. Foods like guacamole, gazpacho, carrot cake and granola became popular.

Meanwhile, an American who’d spent time cooking in Paris named Julia Child was making preparing elaborate meals at home the trend again. Her book with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle called Mastering the Art of French Cooking set the stage for a forty-year career teaching American cooks the intricacies of French dishes like Coq a Vin.