What were the 'foodie' trends of the early 20th century?

by Visceralrealism

Say I'm a relatively wealthy and cultured person in America or Western Europe in 1920. What are the hip food trends of the time? Ethnic foods, health foods, novel preparations?

KnittedBurger

I haven't got much on this, but I can tell you a little bit about what was going on in Denmark in that period in general. I'm afraid I have mostly info on everyday food, quite possibly also because it was a time of crisis and food shortage, so that's what the focus is.

Around the industrialisation in the late 19th century there was a big shift in eating habits. According to the book "Historien om danskernes mad i 15.000 år" roughly translated to "The history about danish food for 15.000 years" it's known in historian circles as the stove period. Meat became more commonly available, especially pork. The stove (with an inbuilt oven) made it possible to bake at home, which lead to a spike in homemade cakes and breads.

The meat-grinder was invented, so the prestige level of ground meat fell. Before it used to take a lot of work to make mince, whereas now it was a good use for less tender meat cuts and scraps.

The price of sugar fell in the middle of the 1800s, which led to an increase in preservation of fruits etc.

Specifically for Denmark, Smørrebrød was born around this time. Possibly made popular by the famous Oskar Davidsen. Smørrebrød is a danish speciality consisting of rye bread and cold cuts (and a bunch of other condiments).

What I can tell you is that rhubarb was fashionable and changed from being for medical purpose to being used all-round in cooking.

In the period of war and famine, a new type of rich people appeared. In Denmark they are known as "Gullash-baroner" which basically means (as you may have guessed) Gullash Barons and is used to describe people who made their fortune selling canned food. In the book I mentioned before it's mentioned that these people frequented fancy gourmet restaurants, where they spent astronimical amounts of money on stuff like champagne, caviar and fine wines. At the same time there was a trend in vegetarianism.

In 1893 a lady called Vilhelmine Borre wrote a book called Vegetarian living (Vegetarisk levevis) where she talks a lot about the health benefits of vegetarianism.

I realise this isn't exactly what you asked, but I hope it's of some use afterall. I realise I haven't supplied my post with a lot of peer-reviewed sources, but rather summaries from popular science, which is none-the-less available at most danish museums and which i consider reliable. I would be happy to provide you with a "if you want to know more list" but I'm afraid most of what I have is in danish.