February 12, 2021 • 42 mins
Brunch has always been a meal of excess and leisure, and it's therefore associated with some ugly classist, racist, and sexist ideals. But waffles are nice! In this classic episode, Anney and Lauren break down the problematic yet delicious history of brunch.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of iHeart Radio. I'm
Anni Rees and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have
a classic episode for you about brunch. Yes, because it
is a big holiday weekend, a lot of things going on,
including a Valentine's Day and Galentine's Day, both of which
(00:30):
often have a brunch element. For Galantine's Day, yeah, both. Yeah.
I mean you know Lunar New Year as well. Ah,
that's true. Oh, that is one of the things that
I'm very much missing as I Every Lunar New Year,
a big group of my friends would go and would
get dimn some would be like brunch time, and it
was like, it's always so fun, and it's one of
(00:52):
those experiences where occasionally just glanced around the table and
see people so happy in sharing this moment, like I
have very strong memories of it. Um, like, wow, this
is such a delightful time we're spending together. Yeah, dim
dim sum places are some of my very favorite places
for that sort of thing, because yeah, it's it's even
if I'm not entirely sure like what any given dish
(01:15):
is going to be, I'm so happy about literally all
of it. Yes, And then so wonderfully full. At the end,
I'm just twenty nine different types of dumplings, and I
feel like it's so it's time to go home. I
myself have become a dumpling. Yes, just like that's short,
(01:40):
that Pixar short or Disney short. Yes. Yeah. And I
suppose Marty girl, you can brunch for anything, really yeah, yeah,
but yeah, we wanted to bring back this classic for that.
And uh, as I said on a previous podcast, I
will be you know, solo, but I will be eating
(02:02):
dumplings and gumbo at some point. I have a great
quantity of frozen dumplings at the current moment, so I'm
definitely gonna gonna cook some of those up. And yeah, yeah,
this this episode is from back in twenties seventeen. I
believe um so long ago one of our earliest episodes,
(02:25):
UM one, that one that Annie was in fact still
the producer on, because that that was a good idea,
like hey, like like, let's throw this entire show just
just right on top of you. Just do everything for it.
You can handle that, right. I jumped so quickly when
someone was like, would you like a different someone else
(02:45):
that edited because you know, at first it's kind of
like you're precious about making yourself sound really good and
being nervous about that, so then you over edit it,
like everything you say in your head you're editing. And
I eventually I was like, oh no, no more, and
(03:08):
it's better, it's better for it. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah
yeah no. I mean I know that we thank um
at the end of every episode, but for serious, um
are our producers. UM and Andrew is the one who
does the day to day editing on this show. And um,
he he's such a huge part of our lives in
(03:28):
this show, Like it's the work that he does is
completely invaluable. Um and Uh, we're so glad to have
him because I certainly didn't want to learn how to
do this whole time. Yes, yes, it has been lovely,
like a lovely brunch. Um. Yeah. Brunch has a lot
of interesting things all kind of wrapped up in it
(03:51):
that we touched on this episode. It's really fascinating and
I occasionally still think about, you know, like this Mother's Day,
are these big brunch days? Why that is? And why
foods become brunch foods? Uh? It is interesting And yeah,
as of now, a lot of companies I think because
(04:12):
we are in tough times, are doing like big kind
of stunt things. Yeah, so well, the waffle House does
this every year, actually not a sponsor, but they have
like a Valentine's Day you can make reservations and go okay, sure, yeah,
(04:32):
which I love. I think I read Dunkin Donuts is
doing like a drive through marriage thing. This is a
lot going on in the breakfast space, the breakfast brunch space,
drive through drive through marriages. I think so at Duncan Donuts.
Oh it's Duncan. Forgive me. I will never live this down.
(04:58):
I have. I have a number of questions, um that
I don't feel like I'm going to ever have a
satisfactory answer for that's I am glad that you can
accept that and move on. That's the healthiest way to approach.
I think, No, that's great, that is that is wonderful.
(05:21):
I approve of everyone celebrating their love with as many
donuts as they want to or any other bunch food
if you're if you're into that thing. Yeah, yeah, we
just want people to be happy. We're speaking of I
guess we should. We should. Let's pass Annie and Lauren
(05:43):
take it away. Yes, Hello and Welcome to food Stuff.
I'm Lauren vulk Mom and I'm any Reese and today, Uh,
we figured that since our last episode was about Bloody Mary's,
(06:07):
we might as well do an episode about French. Yeah.
It was one of the first topics we kind of discussed,
but that wasn't straight up just a food Yeah, because
it's a very specific cultural phenomenon and a very like
specifically bougie one. Um. There's a lot of weird like
class and culture kind of things, gross ichy things like
(06:30):
kind of wrapped up into the concept of Brench. But
it's also this joyous celebratory occasion of having lived through
Saturday Night. So essentially, do you do Do you like brunches? Annie? Uh?
I do. I sometimes question myself when I do it
because I do feel pretty fugie about the whole thing. Um.
(06:51):
And I went on a like a brunch bender a
couple of years ago. Laura knows this about me, but
I like obsess about maps in cities. I'm doing all
the best things in that city, maximizing, Yes, we call
it maximizing. Uh. And I did it for Atlanta brunch,
so I was like every weekend hitting a new different place. Yeah,
(07:13):
so I was big into it for like a very
brief period, and now I just wake up so early.
I don't I can't wait around for brunch. You've had
three breakfasts already by the time a brunch rolls around. Exactly.
How about you? Do you like brunch? Um? I am
really bad at brunch because I shouldn't really eat whole eggs.
It's one of many things that I shouldn't really consume
(07:35):
for my good health. My body gets so mad at
me about various things, and whole eggs are one of them.
And so it's kind of like, well, yeah, well there
you go. Most of the menu probably, Yeah, And I
do love I do love a like an eggs benedict
or something like that. But I'm willing to order that
at any time. I mean, if a kitchen served that
to me, like seven pm, I would definitely order it.
That brunch is not as widespread as I thought it was,
(07:57):
and we will get back to that. Yeah, but it
is a combination of breakfast and lunch. The word itself
as a portmanteau, which is dictionary dot COM's word of
the day a couple of days ago, of those two things. Yes,
that's right. I get the word of the day emails.
And this is a meal that's relegated to the weekend,
(08:18):
typically between tennish and three pmsh, but can go as
early as eight and then it can go as late
as four, which what a night you must have had?
Are are? You could just be hungry at for And
it's a socially acceptable ish time to drink in the
mornings and spend eighteen dollars on eggs. Yeah, and we're
(08:41):
all super excited to do that. It's kind of seen.
Is this more social relaxed meal? Um, Like, breakfast is
something I feel. You get in, you eat your food
and get out. But bunches like we're just gonna chill
for a while, possibly hours, and catch up on everything
that we could possibly need to catch up on, right,
(09:02):
I mean most people are going to brunch somebody wants yeah,
a lot of Otherwise you might just go to a
diner or something like that. Yeah, there's somebody in the
group that's like, do they serve mimosas? Are they bottomless?
It's exactly there's that person. Sometimes it's me, and then
sometimes if that person is me, you forget that. In Atlanta,
we have liquor laws. We still have these blue laws
(09:22):
that are held over from from not all that long ago, um,
and we've gotten rid of some of them. But you
still can't serve alcohol before twelve thirty PM on a Sunday, right,
which means that if you're going to brunch, and most
places in Atlanta don't take reservations for brunch, there's a
surge of people arriving right at twelve thirty, so like
(09:47):
minutes before, like a half hour before, the weight could
be ten minutes twelve thirty two hours. Like another thing
about brunches that usually the foods are, in quotes more
experimental and fusion ee ish. Sure people like to get
creative with their bunch options, so it's not just so
many omelets. You know, you can get creative with omelets.
(10:09):
You certainly can. And the Internet tells me there are
a lot of strong opinions about when qualifies as brunch. Yes,
I never I've never been fussed by it. I'm like,
I'm like, brunch is really more of a state of mind.
So yeah, which actually brings brings us back to the
point of of of brunch having this well deserved reputation
of being a completely like lavish unnecessary bougie kind of thing. Yeah. Uh,
(10:33):
and it also has this kind of also deserved perception
as a rich white person. In particular, one of the
quotes I kept saying popping up when I was researching
brunches from the lead singer of The Strokes, who moved
out of New York to get away from brunch, saying
in a g Q article, quote, I don't know how
many like white people having brunch I can deal with
(10:55):
on a Saturday afternoon. Yeah, no, fair enough though, that's
m m. And it's also apparently gendered feminine, which is
also apparently a running sitcom joke. We're on that later two.
Now that we're talking about it, I've never had this
in my head that it was like a lady's meal,
(11:15):
But now that we're talking about it, I kind of
I guess, I guess I've seen the I guess I've
seen that in pop culture, like like a lady brunch
kind of thing. Like I've seen the sure, totally. But
but in my personal experience, it's usually been do you
have friends of mine who have been super excited about brunch?
So I don't know. Yeah, I've never been at a
restaurant and thought to myself, Wow, it's all ladies in here.
(11:39):
I did used to have lady brunches with with with
A Tracy V. Wilson and our friend Aby man Labis.
But she used to make great brunch recommendations. Tracy did.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, she knew about She knew about
that stuff, and I'm sure she still does. She's not dead.
Nothing has happened to Tracy speaking of brunch recommendations, like,
(11:59):
what are the kind of general ish things you'll find
unappronched menu Aside from the aforementioned mimosas and Bloody Mary's.
Um here in Atlanta, we got things like chicken and waffles.
I do like chicken waffles. It's like a lot. It's heavy,
So a couple of bites in I usually ever regrets,
but those first couple of bites ceremonies other other than that, um,
(12:26):
you know, eggs, benedict, fritatas, cuavos, round arrows. Chile. That's
one of my favorites, Chilichiles. I don't even know what
that is. Oh, you probably couldn't need it. That's probably true.
It's delicious, sad trombone, fancy waffles and bacon bagels. And locks, pancakes,
biscuit sandwiches, home fries or otherwise pan fried potatoes, breakfast tacos,
(12:46):
salads and light sandwiches, steaking eggs tofus skillets, eggy pasta skillets.
Those are the things that I feel like I see
most places that have a big old brunch menu. Yeah. Um,
And I added a note to do a future episode
on why are certain foods breakfast foods? Definitely some good
stories in there. Bake bacon is a fun one that
(13:07):
involves a propaganda and the nephew of Sigmund Freud. Ah Man,
what a teaser we are coming back to that. So
historically speaking, where where did brunch come from? And actually
this part is why I wanted to do this episode
because it's a very short history. Actually, probably people who
(13:30):
have had leisure time and leisure money have been eating
lavish late boarding, early afternoon break fast break fast meals
like like breaking your fast meals for basically ever, especially
in cultures of conspicuous consumption like royalty class, Renaissance and
medieval Europe and during the Roman Empire. But the word
(13:52):
brunch itself, in the Western traditions associated with it are
so much more recent they're like circle Victorian kind of era.
Brunch is thought to have root in England's hunt breakfast
is um, which were these larger and later than usual
meals servants would cook up right after a hunting party
returned with their catch, and foods included at this sort
(14:12):
of thing. According to food timeline dot org, which is
really a very amazing website, UM include cold cuts, entire
legs of ham, tongue, pickled pork, fried potatoes, pork chops,
veal cutlets, anchovies, ham toast. Not positive what that is,
but I want it. Croquettes Is that croquettes are croquets.
(14:34):
I think it's croquettes. Cool that one, savory pudding, savory pies,
meat and jelly like aspect kind of situations. Kidneys, roast larks,
royaled ducklings, deviled turkey, calves heads served cold. Of course,
are you gonna eat your calves head? Fried fish, oysters,
lobster or partridge salad? Snap? That'd be crazy, smoked fish
(15:01):
or meat or sausages for gras, omelets and so on
and so forth. This is a very fancy assortment. Yeah.
And a lot of meat, yeah, really real, real protein heavy,
I'm sure that. I'm sure that like pastry and stuff
was involved. But these these are all of the things
that stood out right, And it makes sense if the
hunting party is not returning with like bread. We have
(15:23):
com cut the bread. We went to the bakery. We
returned victorious from our bread hunt. Actually, I've definitely come
back from bakery's feeling like that. Oh yeah, me too.
According to the Smithsonian's website, the word brunch first popped
up in an article from Hunter's Weekly titled Quote Brunch Plea.
The article's author, Guy Baringer, was making a case that
(15:46):
in the place of heavy post church lunches, h folks
should partake in some lighter foods and have a more
sociable meal, and doing so would be good for your temper,
your fellow humans, and for getting ready. It's the new week,
he said. Quote Brench is cheerful, sociable, and inciting. It
is talk compelling. It puts you in a good temper.
(16:07):
It makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings.
It sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.
It sounds lovely. Yeah, put that way right. He was
really pushing for it. It's like a persuasive essay hero
And there there was a part in there that was
kind of like, look, we know you've probably got up
to some trouble. You're gonna need something to stop up
(16:28):
all that troy Um. A year later, in eight Pennsylvania
paper The New Oxford published the first known written instance
of brunch in the US UM and that same year
in English magazine named Punch advised that this meal should
be called brunch when closer to breakfast and blunch when classes.
(16:49):
I'm really glad that that's not a thing. This might
be one of those words I just adopt, like I
adopted doodle, so I don't say dude. I say doodle.
That's what I originally was. You guys really like Yankee
doodle and he's a dude, And yeah, he's a doodle,
so I say, hey doodles. At this point in England
it was considered highly fashionable, like almost a necessity for
(17:12):
the elite to to brunch, and in nineteen hundred, the
London publication The Academy UH printed this just amazingly cheeky
letter to the editor that lists similar Portmanteo's um, including brupper,
which was described as the joyous meal you have after
(17:33):
a very late dance, for instance, and consists of supper
which might almost be breakfast. That is such a British word.
It also goes on to say, and I quote, but
of course brunch is undoubtedly far the best of all
of them, and is indeed, as you remark, the resource
(17:55):
of the indolent. I am wow. I was like, goodness,
my gracious that I just love. I just love that
cheek in there, and it's great indolent, the resource of
the indolent cool. Soon after this, brunch made it to
one particular demographic in the US, white male college students um.
(18:17):
And this is mostly because there weren't a lot of
women or minorities attending college at the time, because they
weren't allowed to. Yeah, and since it was primarily enjoyed
by hungover college kids, brunch was more commonly known as
varsity meal yeah shoving. Ahead to the nineteen thirties, a
culmination of stuff came together to help brunch along, and
(18:39):
one of these things was Hollywood celebrities. They helped popularize
the meal by stopping midway through their transcontinental flights, typically
in Chicago, to have a late morning meal. Yep. And
like with most things the rich and famous set, the
trend brunch was starting to take off towards the end
of Prohibition the Bloody Merry episode and was seen by
(19:03):
wealthy powerful folk. I read this as they wouldn't get
punished for breaking the law, um as a chance to
start their day with an alcoholic beverage or several, but
in a mixed drink all sneaky like. So it was
like they wanted to drink with their late luxury meal.
They couldn't really unless they hit it in juice, basically
(19:25):
the tomato juice or orange juice typically yeah. Uh In
the l A. Times hosted a demonstration of this new
vogue uh quote, every woman reader of the Times is
cordially invited to attempt my goodness. Apparently. The menus they
demonstrated included such items as tomato juice, popovers, corned beef
(19:49):
hash with eggs, fruit salad, baked stuffed, baked stuffed squab,
and two things I'm very confused about balloon potatoes. Balloon
potatoes and grape billaid. Okay, I've got a theory on
the potatoes. I've got a I've got a theory on
(20:10):
the Great billade Um. Also in seven, a cookbook called Corn,
Beef and Caviare included a menu for a branch of
anchovy and chutney rolls, black bean soup, sauteed kidneys, Indian rice,
and minced celery, and a tomato and clam juice mocktail.
Now why a mocktail? The book said, because this is
(20:31):
one of those cookbooks for women from history that also
included really amazing life advice, and they're really amazing, I
mean incredibly sexist and condescending. Um. And so the book
said that it was only appropriate for a man to
be seen drinking during the day, and that if the cook,
who would be the hostess of a household obviously um
had something by herself in the kitchen, people would think
(20:53):
she was quote depraved and that they quote wouldn't be wrong.
Whoa snap team pretty seven cookbook, so you could enjoy
your tomato and clam juice mocktail. Man, I I don't know.
I've got a lot of women. There's no way to know.
It's the whole point, I guess, yeah, oh man questions
(21:15):
questions to ask to ask my grandmother. So a hotel
seized on this idea of brunch since a lot of
restaurants were closed on Sundays and um a post World
War two dip in church attendance meant that more people
were looking for something to do with friends and family
after sleeping in on Sundays. But restaurants didn't wait long
(21:35):
before joining the hotels and offering fun. New York Cities
Tavern on the Green pretty famous place, began serving brunch
in the forties, and New York thinks in part perhaps
of that sex in the city thing was named best
Brunch City in America by Food and Wine magazine couldn't
find a date on it. Believe it was much to
(21:57):
the lead singer of the Stroke Sugar and another contributing
factor to brunches rise in the United States was due
to the fact that more married women were entering the
workforce after World War Two. That meant that they needed
to rest up on Sunday night, to which meant that
they needed to not cook and plan and prepare this
at the time customery huge Sunday dinner meal. This meal
(22:20):
was a big deal, like this is why Thanksgiving is
on a Thursday level of big deal. Yeah, because we
can't we can't plan those two big meals too close
to one another. Yes, so Thursday was the closest you
could get to Sunday and it being weakened, Like The
New York Times wrote that Sunday had become a two
(22:40):
meal day in nine and brunch was scene is a
way to save time and money. Huh uh, And the
Washington Post writer Ruth Chambers went as far to label
brunch as quote meal for professional women, another one of
those status things. Yeah. Yeah, Apparently before this, women eating
(23:03):
out in public and heaven forbid without a man was
perceived as scandalous and it was heavily, heavily frowned. Okay, sure, Yeah,
of course there were lawsuits about women, yeah, being allowed
to eat in public without a chaperone, bought about by
(23:24):
women some involved in the Voting Rights Act. Yeah, and
this had changed once women started getting factory jobs in
cities and they didn't have the time or desire to
pack a lunch, and they didn't really have a lot
of affordable options that wouldn't possibly put them next to
a strange man at like a lunch counter. Um so,
(23:49):
even at fine restaurants, a lady was supposed to have
a chaperone. And Elizabeth Katie Stanton's daughter Harriet Stanton Blatch
and her friend Hetty Wright Graham Suitor Restaurant after it
refused to seat them. Even though they lost, the tide
slowly began to change. Eating out in public alone was
(24:09):
seen as a visible indicator of women's liberation, and runch
became a big part of this. So and and also
of course that's part of the other tie to this,
being like like a white, wealthy Roman's meal. Yeah, this
is like white women's liberation tied to that. Yeah, absolutely,
(24:30):
that's that's yeah, several Wight's not coming along for another
few decades. Yeah. Man, even brunch is depressing. It's it's
got some funny bits to it. It does it does something.
I mean, Okay, this next one is entertaining. Yes. In
the sixties, Cosmo editor Helen depressing ahead. And actually Helen
(24:51):
Gurley Brown has written some of those things you read
that you're like, it's hilarious but also sad because people
believed what she was writing. Time. Yeah, anyway, Cosmo editor
Helen Curly Brown's The Single Girls Cookbook advised women to
make brunch for any guests staying the night, which at
the time flouted the social norm that women didn't have
(25:13):
any gentlemen callers. They did, they definitely did not like
broadcast it though, don't worry any possible uh like hint
that it was okay or even partially the norm to
have a gentleman caller who might spend the night. Despite that,
the emphasis here was on getting a gentleman caller to
(25:36):
become your husband right. Um. For example, in this book,
there was an entire chapter on what to cook if
you find out your man has been cheating on you
when you want him back. Oh see, that's what those
terrible things hell and curly brown man. What what would
you cook? Oh well, for for that specifically, I'm not sure,
but a sample of brunch menu um involved in this
(25:58):
cookbook was a bloody mary eggs in ham cups, fried apples,
and a fruit jello mold because of course, yeah, it
was the nineteen sixties and why not. In June of
the New York Times published an article by one Angela
Taylor called and so to brunch bagels and locks or
(26:18):
strawberry strawberry omelets or dot dot dot um and and
it also I've got kind of an extended quote that
just really cements the concept of branches being this this
upper class or at the very least this this like
rising middle class kind of thing. So and I quote,
(26:38):
it's very statusy to go out to brunch on Sunday
set a young single woman who lives on the Upper
East Side. But even for the bagels and locks crowd
who haven't heard from status, brenching out is a pleasant
way to console oneself for not being away for the weekend.
Brunch is a lot of different things to New Yorkers.
It can be the special at the cafeteria in the
Central Park Zoo or the nine dollar in fifty cent
(27:00):
menu in the Plaza's palm court, where lesser folks stare
at the well healed tourists and the clink of good
china punctuates a polite hubbub. Brench is also the polyglot
racket of a Chinatown dumpling house, where you gorge on
exotic tidbits and the check is figured by the number
of empty plates on your table. It's champagne cocktails by
candle light in Guttich Village, or even McDonald's, where single
(27:21):
women sometimes hunt for divorced fathers entertaining their offspring whoa
I did not see that coming. I was like, what
a twist. I wanted to read that whole chunk. I
was like, okay, alright, Angela Taylor, thanks, okay, thanks for
that look into the man. And it seems that common
menu items at the time were the kind of things
(27:43):
that we sort of expect today. The ex Benedict bloody Marys,
bagels and lucks um interesting omelets, like like a caviar
and soura cream. Wha, yeah, maybe that is very fancy.
I would totally eat that, like right now, despite the
fact that I shouldn't have eggs. I guess what I
mean is, I would just eat cabar and sour cream.
(28:04):
I'll take that cabriar and sour cream, mamlet hold the eggs.
Brunch crystallized into its final form during the eighties, when Americans,
who now had more disposable income, welcomed with open arms
the hotel brunch buffet, and it spread from cities to towns,
from upscale restaurants to places like I Hup and A
sample menu from a contemporary nine eighties cookbook, Sunset Brunch
(28:29):
creamy scrambled eggs and baked potato boats. Oh, which looks
really great fruit salad and a pineapple shell. Champagne and coffee,
and also dudes were featured cooking and photos in the
book What What I Don't even know? Yeah wow. Around
(28:51):
this time in the eighties is when breakfast started to decline.
UM data from the International Food Information Council found Asian
shows that in n of Americans ate breakfast, but by
two thousand and two that number I dropped, which is
actually higher than I thought it would be. Yeah, eat
breakfast time I wake up. The reason I wake up
(29:12):
is usually I'm hungry. Oh no, I put it off
as far as long as possible. I'll have like a
yogurt like around like eleven or noon. Oh my gosh.
Until then it's just coffee and pure vim. I'm like
at six am, I'm I'm awakened, Like, when can I
eat right now? I've got to find something immediately. I
(29:35):
usually don't like up hungry. I usually have no desire
to eat for a few hours. I used to be
like that in high school, but things have changed. In
the nineteen nineties, brunch spread to Saturday, which brings us
to pretty much modern day brunch. But first, let's stop
for a quick word from our sponsor, and we're back,
(30:01):
Thank you sponsor. Yes. Yes. According to an article I
read from the Washington Post, Google searches for brunch have
gone up since two thousand four, and they pretty consistently spiked.
What days are They're pretty close to each other. They well, yeah,
well it's it's it's another. It's it's another too, like like,
(30:22):
let's give the lady who's clearly the cook a break
from cooking. And so those days are Mother's Day and Easter.
Mother's Day I guess immediately, But Easter, yeah, I mean,
I don't know what else I would have guessed, but
I wouldn't have It's not like Halloween. I mean, that's
for those for for Mother's Day. Brunches started popping up
in newspapers around the nineties. Yeah. And when brunch first
(30:46):
started gaining momentum outside of celebrities in the US, Uh,
that whole cooking and cleaning thing took up two hours
a day of a married woman's time. But now that
numbers are around five hours a week. Yeah. Um, and
outside of brunch, Mother's Day is still the most popular
day a year to eat out. And it is like
(31:07):
we said that, I mean, even in my family might
have would be like, let's give you her MoMA day off.
We'll take her out somewhere, okay, which is which is sweet.
It's just it's just steeped in institutionalized sexism. But I
mean it's weird. It's a weird thing because in my family, Um,
(31:28):
I feel like my mom and I would rather not
go eat out, go out to eat. Yeah, it's it's
but it's seen as like, well, we've got it. Yeah,
brunch on Mother's Day is a vaguely miserable experience like that.
It's just so, it's so, it's so much. It's complete
sensory overload. For me. I kind of can't handle being
in a restaurant with that many children. Yeah, I mean
(31:48):
kids are great. Just I've never I've never risked Mother's
Day French, we always go out like a lunch dinner thing.
I've never tried for the day brunch. It sounds very
intimidating the reservation process. No, thank you, other than you.
People who tend to not be very fond of of
(32:10):
brunch include basically the entire restaurant industry because it means
like working late Saturday night and getting up early Sunday
and figuring out a menu that has breakfast foods and
lunch foods and specialized runch fusion foods that you can
only get it runch. Yeah, all of which are right,
are are different and probably using entirely different ingredients than
(32:32):
you use on your normal lunch and dinner menus. Right.
And on top of that, most restaurants don't get deliveries
on the weekend, so you're probably eating the not so
fresh leftovers of the week and paying so much for it. Uh.
And the staff working runch is usually the newer, which
doesn't have to be bad, but you know, they're less
(32:54):
season staff since it's the quote less busy shift and
at least like so it's like the last pick. And
even though it's expensive, it's not as much as dinner,
so waiters are not making as much in tips. It's
not particularly fun food to make. I read a lot
of the cultures are pain in the butt to cook
to temperature, especially when people are very picky about egg temperature, which,
(33:18):
to be fair, is the thing I've complained about before. Yeah, no,
it's more in the way you complain. I feel like
French crowds feel a little bit entitled because they're bouge
and your bottom was drank, they're probably almost definitely using
the cheap stuff. So yeah, I mean, I guess that's obvious.
(33:39):
But most chefs recommends just going to a breakfast place.
And first of all, most of my favorite brunch places
in Atlanta are more like breakfast places that are just open, yeah,
during bunch times, I guess must and minor as well. Um,
So apart from apart from the price tag which we've
been talking about and the entire restaurant industry hating brunch,
(34:02):
what is let's let' let's talk about this problem, this
problem that is brunch that we've been not even tiptoeing,
just bulldozing right through for this entire episode. Um, this
is a meal, that's the whole existence is thanks to excess.
It's like excess food, excess money, excess time, and it's
always been a meal for people who are well off.
(34:25):
You're not gonna do this leisurely our plus long meal,
h an expensive meal, a social meal on the weekend,
unless you've got the money and that time to do so.
A lot of things I read try and compared it
to like a public culinary display of money and privilege
(34:46):
movements like hashtag. But black brunch have stage protest at
brunch for this reason, and recently brunch has also become
associated with gentrification. Uh. It's a meal that can be
enjoyed by young professionals with extra I'm in money who
don't have kids to worry about and to find affordable
housing for also time to waste. Regarding waiting when there
(35:06):
aren't reservations, I said, um, a lot of brunch places them. Yeah.
I tried to find out why. That was all I
could find is why generally restaurants don't take reservations. Um.
And this is also something I had never really thought about.
The kids thing, like all the other stuff I had considered, Um,
(35:28):
but I never really thought about, like, uh, just the
time you don't have time if you've got kids. Yeah, yeah, yes,
because yeah, I mean I still I still see people
with kids there. Sure, sure I see families out. But yeah,
but it's a whole I mean, it's definitely worth a
deal to to get especially more than one child, like
like dressed and out of the house and to this restaurant.
(35:48):
And is I mean depending on the age of the child, like,
is it is it going to be around their meal time?
Like is there going to be something the kid's gonna
want to eat? Like? Is it gonna like is it
gonna lead to a meltdown? Is it going to be
way less fun than just staying home would have been
for you to begin with? Yeah, yep, all that stuff.
(36:09):
So the data I mentioned earlier from the Google trends
UM actually did not find this correlation of like gentrification
UM on a state level, but it did find a
small correlation between brunch and income and the percentage of
the population living in urban areas those two things share.
(36:31):
That makes sense, Yeah, it was pretty small though. The
largest correlation was between brunch and the percentage of the
population made up of Jewish people. Obligatory disclaimer the episode.
Remember correlation does not equal of course. Yes, Um, brunch
didn't show a correlation with any of the other religions
looked at, and that surprised me because I always kind
(36:52):
of thought it was like people getting out after church,
We're going to brunch. But I guess, um a lot
of churches do like potlox. This is one explanation offered
up for why brunch may may be more popular among
Jewish communities because it's presented as an alternative to church
on Sundays. So what's the future of brunch? After the
(37:15):
American election, some analyst thought the consumerism that brunch can
represent would be like the death of brunch. And I've
heard a lot of people say protest is the new brunch,
but so far that hasn't really been the case. And
there's even dog of brunch DJs. Now why is there
(37:37):
ever a DJ in a restaurant? I don't know. Um So,
so this this is all, this is all very Western
and specifically very American culture that we've been talking about,
and we do have a few notes about brunch brunch
type meals enjoyed in other cultures. But first we're going
(37:58):
to take another quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thank you sponsor. So uh Brench Brench
around the world. One of the first things that I
think of when I think of brunch is dim sum,
because we're very lucky here in Atlanta to have a
(38:19):
wonderful uh international population and some really good, really good
dim sum. Yeah, I love me some dim sum. When
I was kind of looking into I didn't want to
research dim sum too much because we're going to do
definitely a whole other episode. Yeah, it deserves its whole
this whole thing. But um, when I was looking up
(38:39):
like brunch around the world, dim sum is often called
the original brunch um, and the name dim sum refers
to bite sized foods that usually come in steamer baskets
are small plates that are passed around on food carts typically. Um. Yes,
we will come back to that, absolutely definitely. There's also
(38:59):
and I never heard of this one, um, but there's
there's apparently a thing in Dubai called Friday brunch. Yes,
it sounds like American brunch, but on steroids. The work
weekend Dubai is Sunday to Thursday, and so Friday is
like when the weekend starts and you start your weekend
(39:22):
with this lavish, over the top brunch. Um. Like, for instance,
you need a map, a map to navigate the thirties
seven stations for all that dominates an entire floor of
this Like I think it's an office building, um, And
I looked up pictures and it's not seven station map.
(39:47):
I can't imagine entering a restaurant and handed map. It's delightful. Um.
Caviar and champagne are pretty common at all of these
Friday brunches. If anyone's experienced that, yeah, let us know,
send us pictures. That sounds that sounds wonderful. So that's
kind of brunch. Yeah, that's that's kind of that's kind
(40:08):
of what we have to say about brunch, and that
brings us to the end of this classic episode on Brunch.
We hope that you enjoyed it. We hope that whatever
you're celebrating, are not celebrating. It's a nice time for you. Yes. Um,
(40:29):
I was thinking the other day about a friend of
mine has one of those Death Star waffle irons, you know,
oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Last time we all
hung out, but he tried to make those for me
because he knew I was such a big Star Wars fan,
and it just like failed in the most fabulous way.
(40:50):
It was. It was such a good time failure waffles.
Oh no, hey, the death Star failed too, not once,
but twice. Appropriate. Yeah. If if you try to make
a dusk Star waffle and you're like, this is structurally
on sound in a very specific way, then I mean,
I feel like you only have yourself to blame for
(41:12):
your expectations. You're right, I should totally send him a
text out of a blue and just be like, there
was a flaw in your desk Star waffle plan, it's
all your faults. They tasted delicious and I loved it,
and that's that's what a good brunch can accomplish. Yes, yes, um.
(41:34):
If you would like to email us and we would
love to hear from you, our email is Hello at
savor pod dot com. We're also on social media. You
can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at savor pod,
and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts to my
heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
(41:56):
always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks
to you for listening and we have the lots more
good things are coming your way. H
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of iHeart Radio. I'm
Anni Rees and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have
a classic episode for you about brunch. Yes, because it
is a big holiday weekend, a lot of things going on,
including a Valentine's Day and Galentine's Day, both of which
(00:30):
often have a brunch element. For Galantine's Day, yeah, both. Yeah.
I mean you know Lunar New Year as well. Ah,
that's true. Oh, that is one of the things that
I'm very much missing as I Every Lunar New Year,
a big group of my friends would go and would
get dimn some would be like brunch time, and it
was like, it's always so fun, and it's one of
(00:52):
those experiences where occasionally just glanced around the table and
see people so happy in sharing this moment, like I
have very strong memories of it. Um, like, wow, this
is such a delightful time we're spending together. Yeah, dim
dim sum places are some of my very favorite places
for that sort of thing, because yeah, it's it's even
if I'm not entirely sure like what any given dish
(01:15):
is going to be, I'm so happy about literally all
of it. Yes, And then so wonderfully full. At the end,
I'm just twenty nine different types of dumplings, and I
feel like it's so it's time to go home. I
myself have become a dumpling. Yes, just like that's short,
(01:40):
that Pixar short or Disney short. Yes. Yeah. And I
suppose Marty girl, you can brunch for anything, really yeah, yeah,
but yeah, we wanted to bring back this classic for that.
And uh, as I said on a previous podcast, I
will be you know, solo, but I will be eating
(02:02):
dumplings and gumbo at some point. I have a great
quantity of frozen dumplings at the current moment, so I'm
definitely gonna gonna cook some of those up. And yeah, yeah,
this this episode is from back in twenties seventeen. I
believe um so long ago one of our earliest episodes,
(02:25):
UM one, that one that Annie was in fact still
the producer on, because that that was a good idea,
like hey, like like, let's throw this entire show just
just right on top of you. Just do everything for it.
You can handle that, right. I jumped so quickly when
someone was like, would you like a different someone else
(02:45):
that edited because you know, at first it's kind of
like you're precious about making yourself sound really good and
being nervous about that, so then you over edit it,
like everything you say in your head you're editing. And
I eventually I was like, oh no, no more, and
(03:08):
it's better, it's better for it. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah
yeah no. I mean I know that we thank um
at the end of every episode, but for serious, um
are our producers. UM and Andrew is the one who
does the day to day editing on this show. And um,
he he's such a huge part of our lives in
(03:28):
this show, Like it's the work that he does is
completely invaluable. Um and Uh, we're so glad to have
him because I certainly didn't want to learn how to
do this whole time. Yes, yes, it has been lovely,
like a lovely brunch. Um. Yeah. Brunch has a lot
of interesting things all kind of wrapped up in it
(03:51):
that we touched on this episode. It's really fascinating and
I occasionally still think about, you know, like this Mother's Day,
are these big brunch days? Why that is? And why
foods become brunch foods? Uh? It is interesting And yeah,
as of now, a lot of companies I think because
(04:12):
we are in tough times, are doing like big kind
of stunt things. Yeah, so well, the waffle House does
this every year, actually not a sponsor, but they have
like a Valentine's Day you can make reservations and go okay, sure, yeah,
(04:32):
which I love. I think I read Dunkin Donuts is
doing like a drive through marriage thing. This is a
lot going on in the breakfast space, the breakfast brunch space,
drive through drive through marriages. I think so at Duncan Donuts.
Oh it's Duncan. Forgive me. I will never live this down.
(04:58):
I have. I have a number of questions, um that
I don't feel like I'm going to ever have a
satisfactory answer for that's I am glad that you can
accept that and move on. That's the healthiest way to approach.
I think, No, that's great, that is that is wonderful.
(05:21):
I approve of everyone celebrating their love with as many
donuts as they want to or any other bunch food
if you're if you're into that thing. Yeah, yeah, we
just want people to be happy. We're speaking of I
guess we should. We should. Let's pass Annie and Lauren
(05:43):
take it away. Yes, Hello and Welcome to food Stuff.
I'm Lauren vulk Mom and I'm any Reese and today, Uh,
we figured that since our last episode was about Bloody Mary's,
(06:07):
we might as well do an episode about French. Yeah.
It was one of the first topics we kind of discussed,
but that wasn't straight up just a food Yeah, because
it's a very specific cultural phenomenon and a very like
specifically bougie one. Um. There's a lot of weird like
class and culture kind of things, gross ichy things like
(06:30):
kind of wrapped up into the concept of Brench. But
it's also this joyous celebratory occasion of having lived through
Saturday Night. So essentially, do you do Do you like brunches? Annie? Uh?
I do. I sometimes question myself when I do it
because I do feel pretty fugie about the whole thing. Um.
(06:51):
And I went on a like a brunch bender a
couple of years ago. Laura knows this about me, but
I like obsess about maps in cities. I'm doing all
the best things in that city, maximizing, Yes, we call
it maximizing. Uh. And I did it for Atlanta brunch,
so I was like every weekend hitting a new different place. Yeah,
(07:13):
so I was big into it for like a very
brief period, and now I just wake up so early.
I don't I can't wait around for brunch. You've had
three breakfasts already by the time a brunch rolls around. Exactly.
How about you? Do you like brunch? Um? I am
really bad at brunch because I shouldn't really eat whole eggs.
It's one of many things that I shouldn't really consume
(07:35):
for my good health. My body gets so mad at
me about various things, and whole eggs are one of them.
And so it's kind of like, well, yeah, well there
you go. Most of the menu probably, Yeah, And I
do love I do love a like an eggs benedict
or something like that. But I'm willing to order that
at any time. I mean, if a kitchen served that
to me, like seven pm, I would definitely order it.
That brunch is not as widespread as I thought it was,
(07:57):
and we will get back to that. Yeah, but it
is a combination of breakfast and lunch. The word itself
as a portmanteau, which is dictionary dot COM's word of
the day a couple of days ago, of those two things. Yes,
that's right. I get the word of the day emails.
And this is a meal that's relegated to the weekend,
(08:18):
typically between tennish and three pmsh, but can go as
early as eight and then it can go as late
as four, which what a night you must have had?
Are are? You could just be hungry at for And
it's a socially acceptable ish time to drink in the
mornings and spend eighteen dollars on eggs. Yeah, and we're
(08:41):
all super excited to do that. It's kind of seen.
Is this more social relaxed meal? Um, Like, breakfast is
something I feel. You get in, you eat your food
and get out. But bunches like we're just gonna chill
for a while, possibly hours, and catch up on everything
that we could possibly need to catch up on, right,
(09:02):
I mean most people are going to brunch somebody wants yeah,
a lot of Otherwise you might just go to a
diner or something like that. Yeah, there's somebody in the
group that's like, do they serve mimosas? Are they bottomless?
It's exactly there's that person. Sometimes it's me, and then
sometimes if that person is me, you forget that. In Atlanta,
we have liquor laws. We still have these blue laws
(09:22):
that are held over from from not all that long ago, um,
and we've gotten rid of some of them. But you
still can't serve alcohol before twelve thirty PM on a Sunday, right,
which means that if you're going to brunch, and most
places in Atlanta don't take reservations for brunch, there's a
surge of people arriving right at twelve thirty, so like
(09:47):
minutes before, like a half hour before, the weight could
be ten minutes twelve thirty two hours. Like another thing
about brunches that usually the foods are, in quotes more
experimental and fusion ee ish. Sure people like to get
creative with their bunch options, so it's not just so
many omelets. You know, you can get creative with omelets.
(10:09):
You certainly can. And the Internet tells me there are
a lot of strong opinions about when qualifies as brunch. Yes,
I never I've never been fussed by it. I'm like,
I'm like, brunch is really more of a state of mind.
So yeah, which actually brings brings us back to the
point of of of brunch having this well deserved reputation
of being a completely like lavish unnecessary bougie kind of thing. Yeah. Uh,
(10:33):
and it also has this kind of also deserved perception
as a rich white person. In particular, one of the
quotes I kept saying popping up when I was researching
brunches from the lead singer of The Strokes, who moved
out of New York to get away from brunch, saying
in a g Q article, quote, I don't know how
many like white people having brunch I can deal with
(10:55):
on a Saturday afternoon. Yeah, no, fair enough though, that's
m m. And it's also apparently gendered feminine, which is
also apparently a running sitcom joke. We're on that later two.
Now that we're talking about it, I've never had this
in my head that it was like a lady's meal,
(11:15):
But now that we're talking about it, I kind of
I guess, I guess I've seen the I guess I've
seen that in pop culture, like like a lady brunch
kind of thing. Like I've seen the sure, totally. But
but in my personal experience, it's usually been do you
have friends of mine who have been super excited about brunch?
So I don't know. Yeah, I've never been at a
restaurant and thought to myself, Wow, it's all ladies in here.
(11:39):
I did used to have lady brunches with with with
A Tracy V. Wilson and our friend Aby man Labis.
But she used to make great brunch recommendations. Tracy did.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, she knew about She knew about
that stuff, and I'm sure she still does. She's not dead.
Nothing has happened to Tracy speaking of brunch recommendations, like,
(11:59):
what are the kind of general ish things you'll find
unappronched menu Aside from the aforementioned mimosas and Bloody Mary's.
Um here in Atlanta, we got things like chicken and waffles.
I do like chicken waffles. It's like a lot. It's heavy,
So a couple of bites in I usually ever regrets,
but those first couple of bites ceremonies other other than that, um,
(12:26):
you know, eggs, benedict, fritatas, cuavos, round arrows. Chile. That's
one of my favorites, Chilichiles. I don't even know what
that is. Oh, you probably couldn't need it. That's probably true.
It's delicious, sad trombone, fancy waffles and bacon bagels. And locks, pancakes,
biscuit sandwiches, home fries or otherwise pan fried potatoes, breakfast tacos,
(12:46):
salads and light sandwiches, steaking eggs tofus skillets, eggy pasta skillets.
Those are the things that I feel like I see
most places that have a big old brunch menu. Yeah. Um,
And I added a note to do a future episode
on why are certain foods breakfast foods? Definitely some good
stories in there. Bake bacon is a fun one that
(13:07):
involves a propaganda and the nephew of Sigmund Freud. Ah Man,
what a teaser we are coming back to that. So
historically speaking, where where did brunch come from? And actually
this part is why I wanted to do this episode
because it's a very short history. Actually, probably people who
(13:30):
have had leisure time and leisure money have been eating
lavish late boarding, early afternoon break fast break fast meals
like like breaking your fast meals for basically ever, especially
in cultures of conspicuous consumption like royalty class, Renaissance and
medieval Europe and during the Roman Empire. But the word
(13:52):
brunch itself, in the Western traditions associated with it are
so much more recent they're like circle Victorian kind of era.
Brunch is thought to have root in England's hunt breakfast
is um, which were these larger and later than usual
meals servants would cook up right after a hunting party
returned with their catch, and foods included at this sort
(14:12):
of thing. According to food timeline dot org, which is
really a very amazing website, UM include cold cuts, entire
legs of ham, tongue, pickled pork, fried potatoes, pork chops,
veal cutlets, anchovies, ham toast. Not positive what that is,
but I want it. Croquettes Is that croquettes are croquets.
(14:34):
I think it's croquettes. Cool that one, savory pudding, savory pies,
meat and jelly like aspect kind of situations. Kidneys, roast larks,
royaled ducklings, deviled turkey, calves heads served cold. Of course,
are you gonna eat your calves head? Fried fish, oysters,
lobster or partridge salad? Snap? That'd be crazy, smoked fish
(15:01):
or meat or sausages for gras, omelets and so on
and so forth. This is a very fancy assortment. Yeah.
And a lot of meat, yeah, really real, real protein heavy,
I'm sure that. I'm sure that like pastry and stuff
was involved. But these these are all of the things
that stood out right, And it makes sense if the
hunting party is not returning with like bread. We have
(15:23):
com cut the bread. We went to the bakery. We
returned victorious from our bread hunt. Actually, I've definitely come
back from bakery's feeling like that. Oh yeah, me too.
According to the Smithsonian's website, the word brunch first popped
up in an article from Hunter's Weekly titled Quote Brunch Plea.
The article's author, Guy Baringer, was making a case that
(15:46):
in the place of heavy post church lunches, h folks
should partake in some lighter foods and have a more
sociable meal, and doing so would be good for your temper,
your fellow humans, and for getting ready. It's the new week,
he said. Quote Brench is cheerful, sociable, and inciting. It
is talk compelling. It puts you in a good temper.
(16:07):
It makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings.
It sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.
It sounds lovely. Yeah, put that way right. He was
really pushing for it. It's like a persuasive essay hero
And there there was a part in there that was
kind of like, look, we know you've probably got up
to some trouble. You're gonna need something to stop up
(16:28):
all that troy Um. A year later, in eight Pennsylvania
paper The New Oxford published the first known written instance
of brunch in the US UM and that same year
in English magazine named Punch advised that this meal should
be called brunch when closer to breakfast and blunch when classes.
(16:49):
I'm really glad that that's not a thing. This might
be one of those words I just adopt, like I
adopted doodle, so I don't say dude. I say doodle.
That's what I originally was. You guys really like Yankee
doodle and he's a dude, And yeah, he's a doodle,
so I say, hey doodles. At this point in England
it was considered highly fashionable, like almost a necessity for
(17:12):
the elite to to brunch, and in nineteen hundred, the
London publication The Academy UH printed this just amazingly cheeky
letter to the editor that lists similar Portmanteo's um, including brupper,
which was described as the joyous meal you have after
(17:33):
a very late dance, for instance, and consists of supper
which might almost be breakfast. That is such a British word.
It also goes on to say, and I quote, but
of course brunch is undoubtedly far the best of all
of them, and is indeed, as you remark, the resource
(17:55):
of the indolent. I am wow. I was like, goodness,
my gracious that I just love. I just love that
cheek in there, and it's great indolent, the resource of
the indolent cool. Soon after this, brunch made it to
one particular demographic in the US, white male college students um.
(18:17):
And this is mostly because there weren't a lot of
women or minorities attending college at the time, because they
weren't allowed to. Yeah, and since it was primarily enjoyed
by hungover college kids, brunch was more commonly known as
varsity meal yeah shoving. Ahead to the nineteen thirties, a
culmination of stuff came together to help brunch along, and
(18:39):
one of these things was Hollywood celebrities. They helped popularize
the meal by stopping midway through their transcontinental flights, typically
in Chicago, to have a late morning meal. Yep. And
like with most things the rich and famous set, the
trend brunch was starting to take off towards the end
of Prohibition the Bloody Merry episode and was seen by
(19:03):
wealthy powerful folk. I read this as they wouldn't get
punished for breaking the law, um as a chance to
start their day with an alcoholic beverage or several, but
in a mixed drink all sneaky like. So it was
like they wanted to drink with their late luxury meal.
They couldn't really unless they hit it in juice, basically
(19:25):
the tomato juice or orange juice typically yeah. Uh In
the l A. Times hosted a demonstration of this new
vogue uh quote, every woman reader of the Times is
cordially invited to attempt my goodness. Apparently. The menus they
demonstrated included such items as tomato juice, popovers, corned beef
(19:49):
hash with eggs, fruit salad, baked stuffed, baked stuffed squab,
and two things I'm very confused about balloon potatoes. Balloon
potatoes and grape billaid. Okay, I've got a theory on
the potatoes. I've got a I've got a theory on
(20:10):
the Great billade Um. Also in seven, a cookbook called Corn,
Beef and Caviare included a menu for a branch of
anchovy and chutney rolls, black bean soup, sauteed kidneys, Indian rice,
and minced celery, and a tomato and clam juice mocktail.
Now why a mocktail? The book said, because this is
(20:31):
one of those cookbooks for women from history that also
included really amazing life advice, and they're really amazing, I
mean incredibly sexist and condescending. Um. And so the book
said that it was only appropriate for a man to
be seen drinking during the day, and that if the cook,
who would be the hostess of a household obviously um
had something by herself in the kitchen, people would think
(20:53):
she was quote depraved and that they quote wouldn't be wrong.
Whoa snap team pretty seven cookbook, so you could enjoy
your tomato and clam juice mocktail. Man, I I don't know.
I've got a lot of women. There's no way to know.
It's the whole point, I guess, yeah, oh man questions
(21:15):
questions to ask to ask my grandmother. So a hotel
seized on this idea of brunch since a lot of
restaurants were closed on Sundays and um a post World
War two dip in church attendance meant that more people
were looking for something to do with friends and family
after sleeping in on Sundays. But restaurants didn't wait long
(21:35):
before joining the hotels and offering fun. New York Cities
Tavern on the Green pretty famous place, began serving brunch
in the forties, and New York thinks in part perhaps
of that sex in the city thing was named best
Brunch City in America by Food and Wine magazine couldn't
find a date on it. Believe it was much to
(21:57):
the lead singer of the Stroke Sugar and another contributing
factor to brunches rise in the United States was due
to the fact that more married women were entering the
workforce after World War Two. That meant that they needed
to rest up on Sunday night, to which meant that
they needed to not cook and plan and prepare this
at the time customery huge Sunday dinner meal. This meal
(22:20):
was a big deal, like this is why Thanksgiving is
on a Thursday level of big deal. Yeah, because we
can't we can't plan those two big meals too close
to one another. Yes, so Thursday was the closest you
could get to Sunday and it being weakened, Like The
New York Times wrote that Sunday had become a two
(22:40):
meal day in nine and brunch was scene is a
way to save time and money. Huh uh, And the
Washington Post writer Ruth Chambers went as far to label
brunch as quote meal for professional women, another one of
those status things. Yeah. Yeah, Apparently before this, women eating
(23:03):
out in public and heaven forbid without a man was
perceived as scandalous and it was heavily, heavily frowned. Okay, sure, Yeah,
of course there were lawsuits about women, yeah, being allowed
to eat in public without a chaperone, bought about by
(23:24):
women some involved in the Voting Rights Act. Yeah, and
this had changed once women started getting factory jobs in
cities and they didn't have the time or desire to
pack a lunch, and they didn't really have a lot
of affordable options that wouldn't possibly put them next to
a strange man at like a lunch counter. Um so,
(23:49):
even at fine restaurants, a lady was supposed to have
a chaperone. And Elizabeth Katie Stanton's daughter Harriet Stanton Blatch
and her friend Hetty Wright Graham Suitor Restaurant after it
refused to seat them. Even though they lost, the tide
slowly began to change. Eating out in public alone was
(24:09):
seen as a visible indicator of women's liberation, and runch
became a big part of this. So and and also
of course that's part of the other tie to this,
being like like a white, wealthy Roman's meal. Yeah, this
is like white women's liberation tied to that. Yeah, absolutely,
(24:30):
that's that's yeah, several Wight's not coming along for another
few decades. Yeah. Man, even brunch is depressing. It's it's
got some funny bits to it. It does it does something.
I mean, Okay, this next one is entertaining. Yes. In
the sixties, Cosmo editor Helen depressing ahead. And actually Helen
(24:51):
Gurley Brown has written some of those things you read
that you're like, it's hilarious but also sad because people
believed what she was writing. Time. Yeah, anyway, Cosmo editor
Helen Curly Brown's The Single Girls Cookbook advised women to
make brunch for any guests staying the night, which at
the time flouted the social norm that women didn't have
(25:13):
any gentlemen callers. They did, they definitely did not like
broadcast it though, don't worry any possible uh like hint
that it was okay or even partially the norm to
have a gentleman caller who might spend the night. Despite that,
the emphasis here was on getting a gentleman caller to
(25:36):
become your husband right. Um. For example, in this book,
there was an entire chapter on what to cook if
you find out your man has been cheating on you
when you want him back. Oh see, that's what those
terrible things hell and curly brown man. What what would
you cook? Oh well, for for that specifically, I'm not sure,
but a sample of brunch menu um involved in this
(25:58):
cookbook was a bloody mary eggs in ham cups, fried apples,
and a fruit jello mold because of course, yeah, it
was the nineteen sixties and why not. In June of
the New York Times published an article by one Angela
Taylor called and so to brunch bagels and locks or
(26:18):
strawberry strawberry omelets or dot dot dot um and and
it also I've got kind of an extended quote that
just really cements the concept of branches being this this
upper class or at the very least this this like
rising middle class kind of thing. So and I quote,
(26:38):
it's very statusy to go out to brunch on Sunday
set a young single woman who lives on the Upper
East Side. But even for the bagels and locks crowd
who haven't heard from status, brenching out is a pleasant
way to console oneself for not being away for the weekend.
Brunch is a lot of different things to New Yorkers.
It can be the special at the cafeteria in the
Central Park Zoo or the nine dollar in fifty cent
(27:00):
menu in the Plaza's palm court, where lesser folks stare
at the well healed tourists and the clink of good
china punctuates a polite hubbub. Brench is also the polyglot
racket of a Chinatown dumpling house, where you gorge on
exotic tidbits and the check is figured by the number
of empty plates on your table. It's champagne cocktails by
candle light in Guttich Village, or even McDonald's, where single
(27:21):
women sometimes hunt for divorced fathers entertaining their offspring whoa
I did not see that coming. I was like, what
a twist. I wanted to read that whole chunk. I
was like, okay, alright, Angela Taylor, thanks, okay, thanks for
that look into the man. And it seems that common
menu items at the time were the kind of things
(27:43):
that we sort of expect today. The ex Benedict bloody Marys,
bagels and lucks um interesting omelets, like like a caviar
and soura cream. Wha, yeah, maybe that is very fancy.
I would totally eat that, like right now, despite the
fact that I shouldn't have eggs. I guess what I
mean is, I would just eat cabar and sour cream.
(28:04):
I'll take that cabriar and sour cream, mamlet hold the eggs.
Brunch crystallized into its final form during the eighties, when Americans,
who now had more disposable income, welcomed with open arms
the hotel brunch buffet, and it spread from cities to towns,
from upscale restaurants to places like I Hup and A
sample menu from a contemporary nine eighties cookbook, Sunset Brunch
(28:29):
creamy scrambled eggs and baked potato boats. Oh, which looks
really great fruit salad and a pineapple shell. Champagne and coffee,
and also dudes were featured cooking and photos in the
book What What I Don't even know? Yeah wow. Around
(28:51):
this time in the eighties is when breakfast started to decline.
UM data from the International Food Information Council found Asian
shows that in n of Americans ate breakfast, but by
two thousand and two that number I dropped, which is
actually higher than I thought it would be. Yeah, eat
breakfast time I wake up. The reason I wake up
(29:12):
is usually I'm hungry. Oh no, I put it off
as far as long as possible. I'll have like a
yogurt like around like eleven or noon. Oh my gosh.
Until then it's just coffee and pure vim. I'm like
at six am, I'm I'm awakened, Like, when can I
eat right now? I've got to find something immediately. I
(29:35):
usually don't like up hungry. I usually have no desire
to eat for a few hours. I used to be
like that in high school, but things have changed. In
the nineteen nineties, brunch spread to Saturday, which brings us
to pretty much modern day brunch. But first, let's stop
for a quick word from our sponsor, and we're back,
(30:01):
Thank you sponsor. Yes. Yes. According to an article I
read from the Washington Post, Google searches for brunch have
gone up since two thousand four, and they pretty consistently spiked.
What days are They're pretty close to each other. They well, yeah,
well it's it's it's another. It's it's another too, like like,
(30:22):
let's give the lady who's clearly the cook a break
from cooking. And so those days are Mother's Day and Easter.
Mother's Day I guess immediately, But Easter, yeah, I mean,
I don't know what else I would have guessed, but
I wouldn't have It's not like Halloween. I mean, that's
for those for for Mother's Day. Brunches started popping up
in newspapers around the nineties. Yeah. And when brunch first
(30:46):
started gaining momentum outside of celebrities in the US, Uh,
that whole cooking and cleaning thing took up two hours
a day of a married woman's time. But now that
numbers are around five hours a week. Yeah. Um, and
outside of brunch, Mother's Day is still the most popular
day a year to eat out. And it is like
(31:07):
we said that, I mean, even in my family might
have would be like, let's give you her MoMA day off.
We'll take her out somewhere, okay, which is which is sweet.
It's just it's just steeped in institutionalized sexism. But I
mean it's weird. It's a weird thing because in my family, Um,
(31:28):
I feel like my mom and I would rather not
go eat out, go out to eat. Yeah, it's it's
but it's seen as like, well, we've got it. Yeah,
brunch on Mother's Day is a vaguely miserable experience like that.
It's just so, it's so, it's so much. It's complete
sensory overload. For me. I kind of can't handle being
in a restaurant with that many children. Yeah, I mean
(31:48):
kids are great. Just I've never I've never risked Mother's
Day French, we always go out like a lunch dinner thing.
I've never tried for the day brunch. It sounds very
intimidating the reservation process. No, thank you, other than you.
People who tend to not be very fond of of
(32:10):
brunch include basically the entire restaurant industry because it means
like working late Saturday night and getting up early Sunday
and figuring out a menu that has breakfast foods and
lunch foods and specialized runch fusion foods that you can
only get it runch. Yeah, all of which are right,
are are different and probably using entirely different ingredients than
(32:32):
you use on your normal lunch and dinner menus. Right.
And on top of that, most restaurants don't get deliveries
on the weekend, so you're probably eating the not so
fresh leftovers of the week and paying so much for it. Uh.
And the staff working runch is usually the newer, which
doesn't have to be bad, but you know, they're less
(32:54):
season staff since it's the quote less busy shift and
at least like so it's like the last pick. And
even though it's expensive, it's not as much as dinner,
so waiters are not making as much in tips. It's
not particularly fun food to make. I read a lot
of the cultures are pain in the butt to cook
to temperature, especially when people are very picky about egg temperature, which,
(33:18):
to be fair, is the thing I've complained about before. Yeah, no,
it's more in the way you complain. I feel like
French crowds feel a little bit entitled because they're bouge
and your bottom was drank, they're probably almost definitely using
the cheap stuff. So yeah, I mean, I guess that's obvious.
(33:39):
But most chefs recommends just going to a breakfast place.
And first of all, most of my favorite brunch places
in Atlanta are more like breakfast places that are just open, yeah,
during bunch times, I guess must and minor as well. Um,
So apart from apart from the price tag which we've
been talking about and the entire restaurant industry hating brunch,
(34:02):
what is let's let' let's talk about this problem, this
problem that is brunch that we've been not even tiptoeing,
just bulldozing right through for this entire episode. Um, this
is a meal, that's the whole existence is thanks to excess.
It's like excess food, excess money, excess time, and it's
always been a meal for people who are well off.
(34:25):
You're not gonna do this leisurely our plus long meal,
h an expensive meal, a social meal on the weekend,
unless you've got the money and that time to do so.
A lot of things I read try and compared it
to like a public culinary display of money and privilege
(34:46):
movements like hashtag. But black brunch have stage protest at
brunch for this reason, and recently brunch has also become
associated with gentrification. Uh. It's a meal that can be
enjoyed by young professionals with extra I'm in money who
don't have kids to worry about and to find affordable
housing for also time to waste. Regarding waiting when there
(35:06):
aren't reservations, I said, um, a lot of brunch places them. Yeah.
I tried to find out why. That was all I
could find is why generally restaurants don't take reservations. Um.
And this is also something I had never really thought about.
The kids thing, like all the other stuff I had considered, Um,
(35:28):
but I never really thought about, like, uh, just the
time you don't have time if you've got kids. Yeah, yeah, yes,
because yeah, I mean I still I still see people
with kids there. Sure, sure I see families out. But yeah,
but it's a whole I mean, it's definitely worth a
deal to to get especially more than one child, like
like dressed and out of the house and to this restaurant.
(35:48):
And is I mean depending on the age of the child, like,
is it is it going to be around their meal time?
Like is there going to be something the kid's gonna
want to eat? Like? Is it gonna like is it
gonna lead to a meltdown? Is it going to be
way less fun than just staying home would have been
for you to begin with? Yeah, yep, all that stuff.
(36:09):
So the data I mentioned earlier from the Google trends
UM actually did not find this correlation of like gentrification
UM on a state level, but it did find a
small correlation between brunch and income and the percentage of
the population living in urban areas those two things share.
(36:31):
That makes sense, Yeah, it was pretty small though. The
largest correlation was between brunch and the percentage of the
population made up of Jewish people. Obligatory disclaimer the episode.
Remember correlation does not equal of course. Yes, Um, brunch
didn't show a correlation with any of the other religions
looked at, and that surprised me because I always kind
(36:52):
of thought it was like people getting out after church,
We're going to brunch. But I guess, um a lot
of churches do like potlox. This is one explanation offered
up for why brunch may may be more popular among
Jewish communities because it's presented as an alternative to church
on Sundays. So what's the future of brunch? After the
(37:15):
American election, some analyst thought the consumerism that brunch can
represent would be like the death of brunch. And I've
heard a lot of people say protest is the new brunch,
but so far that hasn't really been the case. And
there's even dog of brunch DJs. Now why is there
(37:37):
ever a DJ in a restaurant? I don't know. Um So,
so this this is all, this is all very Western
and specifically very American culture that we've been talking about,
and we do have a few notes about brunch brunch
type meals enjoyed in other cultures. But first we're going
(37:58):
to take another quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thank you sponsor. So uh Brench Brench
around the world. One of the first things that I
think of when I think of brunch is dim sum,
because we're very lucky here in Atlanta to have a
(38:19):
wonderful uh international population and some really good, really good
dim sum. Yeah, I love me some dim sum. When
I was kind of looking into I didn't want to
research dim sum too much because we're going to do
definitely a whole other episode. Yeah, it deserves its whole
this whole thing. But um, when I was looking up
(38:39):
like brunch around the world, dim sum is often called
the original brunch um, and the name dim sum refers
to bite sized foods that usually come in steamer baskets
are small plates that are passed around on food carts typically. Um. Yes,
we will come back to that, absolutely definitely. There's also
(38:59):
and I never heard of this one, um, but there's
there's apparently a thing in Dubai called Friday brunch. Yes,
it sounds like American brunch, but on steroids. The work
weekend Dubai is Sunday to Thursday, and so Friday is
like when the weekend starts and you start your weekend
(39:22):
with this lavish, over the top brunch. Um. Like, for instance,
you need a map, a map to navigate the thirties
seven stations for all that dominates an entire floor of
this Like I think it's an office building, um, And
I looked up pictures and it's not seven station map.
(39:47):
I can't imagine entering a restaurant and handed map. It's delightful. Um.
Caviar and champagne are pretty common at all of these
Friday brunches. If anyone's experienced that, yeah, let us know,
send us pictures. That sounds that sounds wonderful. So that's
kind of brunch. Yeah, that's that's kind of that's kind
(40:08):
of what we have to say about brunch, and that
brings us to the end of this classic episode on Brunch.
We hope that you enjoyed it. We hope that whatever
you're celebrating, are not celebrating. It's a nice time for you. Yes. Um,
(40:29):
I was thinking the other day about a friend of
mine has one of those Death Star waffle irons, you know,
oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Last time we all
hung out, but he tried to make those for me
because he knew I was such a big Star Wars fan,
and it just like failed in the most fabulous way.
(40:50):
It was. It was such a good time failure waffles.
Oh no, hey, the death Star failed too, not once,
but twice. Appropriate. Yeah. If if you try to make
a dusk Star waffle and you're like, this is structurally
on sound in a very specific way, then I mean,
I feel like you only have yourself to blame for
(41:12):
your expectations. You're right, I should totally send him a
text out of a blue and just be like, there
was a flaw in your desk Star waffle plan, it's
all your faults. They tasted delicious and I loved it,
and that's that's what a good brunch can accomplish. Yes, yes, um.
(41:34):
If you would like to email us and we would
love to hear from you, our email is Hello at
savor pod dot com. We're also on social media. You
can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at savor pod,
and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts to my
heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
(41:56):
always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks
to you for listening and we have the lots more
good things are coming your way. H
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.