La Mesa Está Servida

By Rebekah Pite

In 20th-century Argentina, there are few cultural figures as bright and enduring as the culinary celebrity Doña Petrona C. de Gandulfo. After the publication of her first book, El libro de Doña Petrona in 1934, she established herself as a national figure. In the print media, on the radio, and later on television, she became the referent in Argentine cooking. Her cookbooks sold more than 3 million copies, and her name became well-known across much of Latin America. Associate Professor of History Rebekah Pite’s latest book, La Mesa Está Servida [The Table is Served], is at once a biography of Doña Petrona C. de Gandulfo and also a socio-cultural study of the construction of her public image, her impact on women of several generations, the culinary arts, and the relationship between cooking and family. In it, Pite illuminates questions of gender, work, consumption, daily life, and politics.