Paper short abstract:

The aim of the paper is to discuss food preparation as unquestioned, cross-class, daily practice, which in contemporary Poland has both traditional and modern grounds. Perceiving cooking as a “natural” consequence of having a family intertwines with performative home-making role assigned to it.

Paper long abstract:

Basing on ethnographic material collected in contemporary Poland among people running households (qualitative interviews) combined with data coming from internet resources (selected blogs and web forums) I will analyze "homemade food" not as a label, but as a practice of "preparing food at home". I will show that in postsocialist Poland home food preparation may be interpreted as "transparent" because unquestioned. Since traditional concept of feeding family intertwines with limited economic capabilities and late modern ideas of food safety, everyday cooking or consuming food prepared by family members is common experience, which seems to cross class affiliations. Even in the situation of food habits and knowledge transformation homemade cooking still remains not only an obvious idea, but also a part of daily routine. This is eating out that needs to be explained, justified or linked to special occasions. At the same time, ready-made meals or semi-finished products - although not highly valued - have potential for being included into home production of food, which means that borders between homemade and non-homemade may be blurred and negotiable. Therefore it seems that in the combination of words "home" and "made" emphasis is put on home - meaning family - rather than food preparation process. The sense of cooking is linked to feeding and commensality, while resignation of it may be linked to living alone thus running a household perceived as not traditional or not full-fledged yet.