burnt.

 Life as a society has changed and now there is a new normal and a new way of life. From survival instincts to rations of every household item —the global pandemic is a connection that humanity can all share. For most, staying home and cooking together helped to form a connection and for others strong feelings were evoked from cooking constantly. Cooking came to be somewhat of a hinderance, but also a form of therapy and a connection for all of humanity to connect with. The feelings of hinderance and therapy that were felt from a personal stance with cooking can be tied to historical references of gender roles in the kitchen. Studies in the past, show that women spend significantly more time in the kitchen and in various domestic roles in comparison to men.1 Being a single parent during the pandemic, I can relate to time spent in the kitchen and the dynamic of domesticity. These feelings of hinderance can also be tied to cultural references such as a connection to a Chicana upbringing and one’s role in the kitchen.2 

For me, being a cook and a provider is something that was instilled in my psyche from birth. Feminism can also be relative when thinking about the emotions that have been unveiled during this time of the pandemic. Theorists like bell hooks have played a major part in speaking about feminism when it comes to raising children specifically.3 Raising children without sexism can be relative to the gender roles that families may experience in life. The tying elements mentioned will depict emotion of a mother, design student, former chef, and her family in the form of a kitchen kit called Burnt. Burnt includes the ingredients to help families connect by including recipes and the spices to create them. An understanding of my own family’s journey in the form of personal testimony during this current pandemic climate will be included to connect with the audience as well as explore one’s own personal journey. 

1. Marks Jaime, Bun Chun Lam, McHale Susan. Food for Love: The Role of Food Offering in Empathetic Emotion Regulation, Front Psychol. no. 32 (Jan 2014). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article

2. Arredondo, et al. Chicana Feminisms: A Critical Reader. Durham: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822384359 ISBN electronic: 978-0-8223-8435-9 Publication date: 2003 ‹ Prev Next › BOOK CHAPTER Domesticana: The Sens, 2003.

3. hooks, bell. “Feminism is for Everybody.” 2015. https://ebookcentral. .proquest.com/lib/cudenver/reader.action?docID=1813118 . proquest.com/lib/cudenver/reader.action?docID=1813118 .