It was a culinary revolution: in the post-war period, tinned food, ready meals and frozen food conquered the kitchens in northern Germany. The documentary tells in an amusing and full of surprises how fish sticks, canned ravioli or Toast Hawaii changed people’s eating habits forever.
It is becoming clear that food has perhaps changed more in the last 100 years than in 1,000 years ago due to cans, frozen foods and the like.
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Set a culinary monument with the Toast Hawaii
Anne Ocker grew up in the country and still remembers the time when exotic fruits like canned pineapples were sold. TV chef Clemens Wilmenrod created a culinary monument with his Toast Hawaii. For Klaus Helmbrecht, these were completely new taste experiences at the time. He regularly conducts visitors in Hanover World Of Kitchen, or WOK for short, Europe’s only kitchen museum, and amazes guests with many exciting stories about the kitchen, cooking and tin cans, which, by the way, we have to thank for Napoleon.
The classic comes in a can
Still popular with campers in particular: canned ravioli.
The canned ravioli are still the best-selling ready meal. For Anke Pauli, it was the taste event of her childhood while she served her two children the pasta classic. The filled dumplings have been available in German shops since 1958, and Italy became a country of longing for post-war Germans.
Bihun soup: “souvenir” from Indonesia becomes a bestseller
With the desire to travel, new dishes are always coming into the North German kitchen. Especially popular: the Bihun soup. Two brothers from Saxony discovered the recipe after escaping from a GDR cruise ship in Indonesia. They open a restaurant in Göttingen and soon increase production: the spicy Bihun soup becomes a bestseller in the 1970s.
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60s become the decade of frozen food
Frozen food has also played a large part in the revolution in cooking. Dirk Ahlers still remembers that when he was young, fish was rarely served fresh. The transport routes were too long, the cooling was too bad. The founder of the Bremerhaven company Frosta developed his business idea on a trip on a fishing boat: the fish should be deep-frozen on board to keep it fresh. The beginning of a success story, not only for Frosta. The 1960s has become a decade of frozen food. Millions of mothers use fish sticks to make fish tasty for their children.
Progress in the kitchen = progress for women?
Technical advances in the kitchen in particular have made life easier for many women.
Not every post-war household has its own refrigerator. But with the new technical achievements, the life of housewives is also becoming easier. Anne Ocker explains that suddenly there was an incredible amount of free time. She believes that the new products have also contributed greatly to the emancipation of women.
However, the documentation also addresses the critical points of this development. This is how dr. Uwe Spiekermann, if everyone ate like this, the resources would end. In his book “Artificial Food” he has dealt with nutrition since 1840. And he asks himself whether this (tin) can of Pandora can be closed again.
Funded by nordmedia – Film- und Mediengesellschaft Niedersachsen/Bremen mbH.