The family dinner in a period of culinary transformations: A case study from Israel

AbstractDinner patterns have been changing in Israel in recent decades. While the evening meal is still commonly associated with a specific model comprised of bread, cheese, eggs, and fresh vegetables, the culinary reality is more diverse. In this study, we examine the fate of this “national” model in a period of culinary transformations, based on interviews with upper-middle-class mothers of young children and on an online survey. While the association of dinner with the “classic” model is still prevalent, in practice its dominance has declined, giving way to new dinner models—primarily the “cooked dinner,” which requires more investment of time and effort. At the same time, the “classic dinner” is still one of the dominant dinner models. We argue, that the current status of the “classic dinner” results from the tension between the growing social and nutritional importance of dinner and its functioning as a token of the mothers’ love and care on the one hand, and life circumstances that leave little time for preparing dinner, on the other hand. This model, which is no longer considered sufficient as a family dinner, nevertheless constitutes a socially legitimate option for a “good enough dinner.”Keywords: Family dinnerIsraeli foodwaysworking mothersmeal patternsfood habitscommensalitycooked meal. AcknowledgmentsThis article is based on the first author’s Master’s thesis written in the framework of the Unit for Culture Research at Tel Aviv University, under the supervision of Dafna Hirsch and Rakefet Sela-Sheffy. We thank Rakefet for her insights on an earlier version of this article. We also thank the members of the inter-university Food Studies Research Group and the anonymous reviewers of Food and Foodways for their helpful comments.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Our sample is too small to allow generalizations concerning the relationship between ethnicity and dinner patterns. At least among our interviewees we did not detect any difference along ethnic lines and the ethnic issue seldom came out in the interviews.