ABSTRACT
From macho TV chefs like Gordon Ramsay, to charming culinary craftsmen like Jamie Oliver, images of men cooking are now commonplace in Western popular culture. Anyone familiar with food media and foodie culture generally might think that gender has become less relevant to the world of food, with both men and women thinking, eating, and acting like foodies-a category that we assign to individuals who are passionate about the pursuit of “good food.” The apparent infl ux of men into the domestic kitchen raises questions about how people’s involvement in food and cooking is gendered. Common belief and sociological research agree that women carry out the mainstay of domestic food planning, purchasing and cooking, and that this foodwork is key to feminine identities (Beagan et al. 2008; Bugge and Almas 2006; DeVault 1991; Matchar 2013: 26). While there is a rich literature exploring gendered foodwork within the general population, we know little about how gender plays out in foodie culture-that is, in the specifi c cultural context where men appear to be more actively embracing food-related identities. How do foodies understand the importance of food in their lives, and how (or to what extent) are these understandings gendered?
