The Pleasures of Your Food Processor by Norene Gilletz is very valuable as a primary source for gaining a better understanding about a variety of subject matters circa the early 1990s: food processing techniques, home cooking culture, Canadian cuisine, Jewish cuisine, and Norene Gilletz herself. Regarding food processing techniques of the time, this book shows us the novelty of it as a food preparation technique. Gilletz advocates strongly for every household to have a food processor, indicating that many do not. The novelty of a food processor is also shown through Gilletz’s thoroughness in explaining every part, function, and capability of a standard food processor, to ensure perhaps that new owners would be using it in the safest and most effective way. New owners of food processors could also be people new to home cooking in general, and one selling point of food processors according to Gilletz is how much time they save. The book sheds a bit of light into home cooking culture in the early 1990s, in that in some ways it reinforces the gendered aspect of home cooking. Gilletz frequently refers to a food processor as an extra pair of hands, but some would say that an extra mechanical pair of hands would perhaps be better replaced by a real pair of hands. 

The chosen recipes for this book and how the food processor is involved in them is the most insightful product of this book as a primary source. On one page of the Appetisers, Dips & Spreads section there are recipes for spanakopita and falafel, illustrating how the Canadian palate has strong Middle Eastern and Mediterranean influences, especially rising in popularity with changing demographics in the early 1990s. On one page of the Soups, Sauces and Miscellaneous section there are recipes for a garden vegetable soup, and frozen mixed vegetable soup, aptly displaying two sides of food culture in Canada: the wealth of beautiful fresh produce, and the ubiquity of frozen food. In the Meat and Poultry section there are recipes for Cantonese short ribs and in the Vegetables, Side Dishes and Salads section there is one for Chinese fried rice, paying homage to the large Cantonese diaspora in Canada. In the Festive Holiday Favourites section, Gilletz even shows how the food processor can aid in the extensive food preparation involved with Thanksgiving, with recipes for turkey gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Gilletz briefly mentions that her particular culinary background means she cooks a lot of Jewish and kosher food, and her section on Passover goes into great detail about how to enhance this religious holiday. Gilletz even notes that some manufacturers offer alternate parts and containers to enable the Passover tradition of changing all dishes and cookware, if one so desires. This book thus serves as an interesting primary source at the intersection of one of the world’s oldest religions, and the increasing role technology plays in our lives.

While any copy of this book would provide these general insights into food culture in Canada in the early 1990s, this copy has extensive handwritten annotations by Norene Gilletz herself. Her notes reveal much about what it means to be a good cook and a good writer. At the end of the biography in the book, Gilletz writes “Her love of good food, her belief that cooking doesn’t have to be gourmet to be great, … recipes are quick and easy to follow, but most important of all they work!”. In order to live up to her claim that they are all quick, easy, and functional, Gilletz must ensure her recipes truly work every time. Part of being a trusted source of culinary information is constant experimentation, modification, and improvement, and Gilletz’s annotations show clear evidence of this. Often these notes are deleting unpopular recipes (like tuna broccoli crepes), or adjusting ratios for better outcomes. These notes provide insight into Gilletz’s character as a cook and writer, showing a high degree of self-reflection, rigour, and evolution. In my opinion, some of these recipes have not aged very well, and clearly are more representative of the Canadian palate in the early 90s, however their practicality is undeniable. I am very much sold on Gilletz’s pitch of why every household should have a food processor, and her recipes do a good job of using it to reduce prep and cook times of a wide range of dishes. The even better technology that has developed in food processors in the last thirty years also only enhances these recipes; now more than ever automation and machines will play a larger role in the kitchen and in our homes, so a comprehensive reference manual for food processors has arguably increased in value. The ingredients used and the recipes too are also broadly still quite contemporary, and many are recognisable Canadian and North American favourites.  Proving my point about the usefulness of a book thirty years on, Gilletz has since published a new food processor-based book series titled The Food Processor Bible, including a special thirty-year anniversary edition published in 2011. A brief comparison shows not much has changed, as the sections are largely the same, the overall message is still advocating for a food processer in every home, but there are some differences. The new series has a more modern palate in mind, with a greater range of non-European cuisines, and even tips for how to best use a food processor are updated to reflect the evolution in processing ability.