The Cucumber Shark: Part IV

Did Ronald McDonald kill Betty Crocker!!? Could the invention of what we now call "fast food", I am not talking about real fast food such as stir fry, seafood and other things that can be made quickly, I mean the pre-made, pre-packaged, frozen, slap on a griddle, microwave or into a deep fryer, sling under a heat lamp until you order it then either wrap it up or slam it into a box and a sack, and hand it out the window, have been the demise of the Cleaver family-like sit down dinners? Did our skills as Americans fork off into another direction at this point (1940)? Let's look into this.

Betty Crocker was created in 1921 as a persona to give a personal feel to the responses to consumer questions. But it grew. She is synonymous with the cookbook sharing the name. My mother even gave me one when I started cooking and to this day I still have it.. Everyone looked to Betty to cook.

Let's move ahead now to 1940, McDonald's was created. It was their "Speedee Service System" years later that became what we now know as "fast food". Now let's jump to 1963, Ronald shows up. The snowball has been created and it is slowly cresting the hilltop. Down she goes. The marketing is tremendous. At this point, it is EASIER, to go pick up pre-made dinner than it is to drag out your Betty Crocker cookbook and actually make dinner. Granted, I do for convenience, grab something on the road occasionally, but it lacks the Joy of Cooking. (Alright, that was lame, it just worked its way in all on it's own I swear.) In conclusion, in 2005 Betty Crocker released the 10th edition and a bilingual version, but in 2006 the Betty Crocker catalog went out of business. She is hanging on though, in 2007 the online store was launched.

I must give credit where credit is due. Thank you Norman for the inspiration of the killer Ronald. Your short, independent film is a true classic and I will never forget it.

Robert