Katie Workman’s Background
Katie workman is a mom, cook, hunger issues activist, and a cookbook author. Other than The Mom 100 Cookbook, Workman has published another cookbook with similar aspects of making meals for a family. Her writing appeals to busy, health oriented, middle class women with children. (Workman, 2020)
Assumed audience background
The main point of “The Mom 100” is to display 100 recipes that are not time consuming but easy to make and healthy.
Since the readers are assumed to be “busy moms”, meals are mainly organized by the amount of time they take to make. The recipes range anywhere from “dishes in 30 minutes or less”, “make ahead dishes”, and “freezable dishes”. This is different from a run of the mill cookbook which would have recipes organized by which meal of the day they are intended for. Workman can easily relate to her readers because they share a similar lifestyle,
There are a number of fairly consistent cooking situations we moms find ourselves in. Week-night dinners are a biggie. There are lunches, potluck school events, bake sales, easy family entertaining, vegetable sides. We need meals to make ahead, meals for vegetarians, meals with different levels of spiciness. (Workman, 2012, Pg xv)
The book is focused even further on busy moms who happen to have little to no kitchen experience. This cookbook has a more casual feel to it as compared to a normal cookbook layout. The rhetoric Workman uses in the forefront of a new recipe makes it seem like it’s something coming from a friend. She often starts with a lighthearted story about being a mom or by talking about how delicious the dish is about to be. The ingredient list is straightforward and gives exact measurements. They also typically require between 4 and 10 different ingredients. The directions are very detailed as well. It would be surprising to finish reading her instructions and still be confused. She also has a few pages here and there dedicated to kitchen tips and tricks that would be considered common sense to an experienced cook.
Freeze foods in the sizes you will likely want to defrost. In other words, use a quart container (or zip top bag) vs. a gallon size if you think that’s the right amount for the next meal. It’s easier to defrost four quart containers than one gallon anyway, and you have the option of using the smaller amount, if that’s a better amount. (Workman, 2012, Pg xxv)
A third demographic this cookbook appeals to are middle class families. The equipment and ingredients in this book seem to relate exactly to the middle class. There is nothing too extravagant but there are still a few steps required to complete these dishes. Pots, pans, cutting boards, knives, and ovens are the most common kitchen tools needed. These might not be common supplies in lower class households, yet high class households may have better tools for cooking. When looking at the ingredients, it is clear that anyone cooking these meals has access to fresh fruit, vegetables, and a variety of meats. Fresh fruits and vegetables in particular are included in almost every meal. For example:
2 hearts of romaine lettuce, sliced crosswise into ½ inch ribbons
1 red bell pepper (Or orange, yellow, or green), stemmed
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced or shredded
1 can (14 ounces) artichoke bottoms, cut into ¼ inch dice
1 cup thinly sliced english cucumber… (Workman, 2012, Pg 93)
This would be a problem for a lower class family because all of these ingredients are somewhat costly and can be hard to access. Especially in urban areas with greater distances to proper grocery stores. Yet, the Mom 100 dishes are not lavish enough to be considered a cookbook for the upper class. Even though there are a few “expensive” meals, they are meant for special occasions like an “I-really-need-to-impress-someone” main course including:
12 rib lamb chops (¾ inch thick; about 1 ¾ pounds total) (Workman, 2012, Pg 228)
Class Linkages
Workman uses both a modern and traditional lens to portray her views on gender roles. Even though this cookbook was published recently in 2012, Katie Workman is very traditional in that this book is focused around all the actions a mom can take to prepare meals for her family. This plays on the traditional gender role stereotype that the woman’s role is to cook, clean, and take care of the kids. There is nothing wrong with a woman filling these roles but it does seem outdated that this phrasing is throughout the book. There is also an assumption made that the reader is a woman themself too. In bold on the title page are the words, “ The Mom 100 Cookbook… 100 recipes every mom needs in her back pocket”. This cookbook seems to be aimed at a heterosexual man/woman oriented families when in reality, there are many different gender and sexuality combinations in each family. Looking at the more modern lens this cookbook portrays itself in, Workman initially appears to be a single mom. There are only a handful of mentions of a husband in the book but they are very brief. Workman does not focus on having a hot meal ready for her husband as he gets home from work, rather a nice meal prepared for her kids in between school and sports. This focus on kids over husband is what makes her cookbook not seem outdated.
Secondly, this cookbook highlights the importance of variety in a healthy diet. Workman hyper focuses on vegetable intake in her children’s diet. The way she uses rhetoric pertaining to health, shows that she is a health conscious mom. It seems if a recipe hides vegetables well with its flavor, it is the first thing she mentions in the sidebar notes. She also includes tips on what not to say when introducing a new vegetable,
DO NOT OFFER YOUR KID SOMETHING TO TRY WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY SAYING, “I DON’T THINK YOU’RE GOING TO LIKE THIS”. (Workman, 2012, Pg 184)
Although her focus on vegetables and variety compares more to the older versions of the nutrition recommendations, her meals are balanced to the proportions of current nutrition recommendation standards.
Thirdly, this entire cookbook is based around the concept of convenience ideology. As stated earlier, Katie Workmans is a busy mom and those who are buying her cookbooks are most likely the same. The goal of these recipes is to feed off the fact that moms do not have time to slave over an extravagant dinner in the kitchen every day. These meals work for most moms because it seems they are all on the same 8-5 kid schedule every day coordinating with school and sports.
Works cited
About Katie Workman, Cook and Writer. The Mom 100. (2020, March 6). https://themom100.com/about-katie-workman/.
Workman, K. (2012). The mom 100 cookbook: 100 recipes every mom needs in her back pocket. Workman Pub.