What’s in YOUR fridge?

by Kristidel McGregor

This morning I was in the middle of my usual morning routine (stretching my scalenes because I have a bum neck, drinking lots of black coffee, reading the newspapers online and trying not to curse in front of my kids) when I was confronted with this picture of the inside of two refrigerators.  Pop Quiz: can you tell a Trump fridge from a Biden fridge?

This quiz lives behind a paywall, because it’s the fucking New York Times. But I give them money every month so I spent about 10 minutes of my life (minutes I’ll never get back) trying to guess someone’s political affiliation based on their brand of yogurt. Because as everyone knows, only Biden voters eat fancy yogurt (this shit is delicious btw).

I was terrible at this quiz, guessing correctly 2 out of 10 times. I really sucked, but that’s not the point I want to make here. Even early in the morning, the only correct response to this stupid quiz is “what, this fuckery again?”  The only knowledge you need to complete this so-called “quiz” is a high level of class consciousness, with a side of white-privilege bland food snobbery.

How does this relate to school, you may ask?  It does because I’m sick and tired of seeing kids judged by their social class. So many things about food judgement are based on class.  A kid comes to class with a soda and a sausage McMuffin? Teacher thinks their parents are making terrible breakfast choices. Another kid in the class has a mocha and a ciabatta-and-prosciutto breakfast sandwich from Starbucks? Teacher thinks their parents got them a treat. Overall, the meals are damn near identical: pig meat, egg, and cheese on bread, sugary caffeinated drink on the side. But the differences in how teachers perceive these meals, and its effect on kids, are real. 

In my School and Representation in Film class I show two clips during a lesson focusing on media portrayals of social class. One comes from Honey Boo Boo, and depicts the family making their classic ‘sketi. 

Noosa is pricey, and nothing says Democrat like pricey yogurt.”
comedian Justin McElroy, fridge-quiz-taker

This recipe includes a sauce that consists of tomato ketchup and butter, and it’s a cheap and easy dinner. Mamma June says she feeds the family of 6 on about 80 dollars a week, no easy feat.

​Meanwhile, the New York Times cooking page has this recipe for tomato sauce, by famous chef Marcella Hazan, who they call “the cookbook author who changed how Americans cook Italian food.”  They go on say, “don’t be scared off by the butter. It gives the sauce an unparalleled velvety richness.”  The recipe for this famous sauce?  A can to tomatoes (the fancy ones, of course), and a stick of butter. You also put a whole onion in the tomatoes while it simmers, just to take it out and throw it away.

What’s the main difference between these two recipes?  Why is a can of tomatoes so very different, in the public eye and in how it is represented by the media, from a few squirts of ketchup? Both bring a tomato-y acidity, and the butter of course tastes good, it’s butter! But these meals are represented so differently for the same reason a McMuffin is different from a Double-smoked Bacon, Cheddar, and Egg: one has come to represent a certain social class, and other a very different one.  ​