ARTICLES by the Kitchen Madonna :: Let this be a place where those who hunger can be fed.

The KM Commences Her Food History:
The Apotheosis of the Chicken Finger
July 13th, 2006

Having bought groceries for most of my life from the munificent proceeds of the historical enterprise - I used to be a historian - the Kitchen Madonna feels compelled to record her impressions of food history. Since I became a writer and hence have made being non-linear work for me, I will not start at the beginning of food history, say with Cain and Abel and that mess of pottage or even with that 17th century incident in Spain where the aristocratic ladies threatened to kill the bishop if he did not allow their serving wenches to bring them hot chocolate during Mass. But don't worry, my history shall, in the end, be a proper chronology. Nothing ahistorical about it at all.

I shall commence with an exploration of the connections between the modern car seat and chicken fingers. Some historians may say that the apotheosis of the chicken finger in our culture is causally unrelated to the invention and diffusion of the car seat. Not so. The moment a critical mass of working moms developed in this country, those two inventions came about. First, the mama's had to have a way to schlep their children to daycare. Then the legislators got involved and everybody had to have one. Per child that is. Then the fast food industry realized that they could create some capitalistic synergy with the apotheosis of the car seat by aggressively marketing finger foods. Since no one has developed a beef finger food, chicken fingers were it! And children's palates have never been the same. Nor the family.

Check these pages in the future, and I'll draw more, amazing food history connections and interpretations.