Cookbooks: Ethnic Cookbooks

Although the popularity of ethnic cookbooks is sometimes perceived as a recent phenomenon, ethnic cookbooks have a long history in America. Early colonists brought cookbooks from the Old World in addition to creating their own. Ethnic cookbooks in the United States—then and now—have typically functioned as a means to maintain ethnic and regional ties and to introduce foreign cuisines to American cooks. These cookbooks also reveal how Americans have explored and merged different cultures and developed notions of regional, ethnic, and national identity. As the primary cooks of ethnic foods, issues of identity have been particularly important to women.