Food for Thought by Daphne Oz

Last week on ABC's "The Chew," we celebrated a decade each day, starting with the 1950s on Monday and ending with the '90s on Friday.

Our aim was to conjure nostalgia and celebrate the famous foods of each decade, giving our viewers inspiration to revisit favorite lost recipes and remember how their lives were shaped by the specific food, fashion and entertainment of each period.

Though the years likely blur together for those who actually witnessed them, some starkly contrasting characteristics stood out for me: the modesty and qualified optimism of the '50s after the war; the embracing of modernism and convenience in the '60s, with TV dinners and Frigidaire; the free love and anti-war sentiment of the '70s; the vanity of the '80s, with perms, diet sodas and workout videos; the rejection of this preening in the '90s, when we returned to mom jeans and deluxe comfort food.

Obviously, these are gross exaggerations of some mainstream moods. But I found it really interesting that many of the most popular dishes mirrored the general attitude of the American people during each era.

For the '50s episode, we enjoyed, among other things, a baked Alaska, a classic symbol of conservative extravagance. Though it's really just ice cream, cake and marshmallow, the presentation of a mountain of fluff set ablaze with alcohol poured over top made for an exquisitely simple yet formal dessert as American families came back to the dinner table and tried to re-establish "normal" life in the wake of World War II.

During the '60s day, we sampled casseroles, reminding ourselves of the new availability of canned goods and semi- or pre-prepared foods that came to be commonplace with advances in refrigeration and processing. Suddenly, the American diet began to shift away from scratch meals in favor of timesaving, efficient solutions that were more convenient for the women of the day, many of whom were beginning to return to work.

On Wednesday's '70s show, we featured creations such as beef stroganoff, chicken Kiev and the fried Monte Cristo sandwich, which is essentially a variation on a croque-monsieur. These sorts of foods had made-up names and dubious foreign origins but nonetheless allowed the diner to be transported — even artificially — to a distant place, responding to his or her desire for world knowledge and connection.

The '80s were all about designer pizzas a la Wolfgang Puck and variations on the classic French quiche.

For the '90s, we indulged in giant glazed cinnamon buns and glasses of giant iced lattes like those you might find in any of the designer coffee shops that popped up all over during those years. We made a slew of "moshed" potatoes, in homage to the grunge and punk moshers of the day, and enjoyed seriously tasty "corn dogged" hot dogs, zucchini strips and shrimp. It was all about hitting the crave spot with easy but innovative comfort food while donning the fashions made popular by shows such as "Friends," "Seinfeld" and "Beverly Hills, 90210."

It was fascinating to review the times primarily through the lens of what we were eating, and the thing that kept hitting home for me was how large a role the consumer played in determining what foods were available.

Consumers wanted to stock their pantries rather than their refrigerators, so producers poured all their resources into developing shelf-stable supplies. Consumers wanted foods that were international and fanciful, so the market put out fabricated "ethnic dishes" to meet this demand. We wanted cheap convenience food and ended up with fast-food chains on every corner. Each time, we have gotten what we've explicitly asked for — and voted with our dollars to keep certain food trends afloat, whereas others go the way of astronaut snacks. (Remember those?)

The question is, With so many of us struggling to eat well today — being forced to choose foods that are not health-supportive (and, frankly, that are so hyper-processed that they can hardly be considered true sustenance), because the alternatives cost too much or are hard to come by — what are we asking for?

If history repeats itself, all we have to do is change our request — and vote with our wallets — and the system will respond. We just have to commit to what we want.

Daphne Oz is a co-host of ABC's "The Chew." To find out more about Daphne Oz and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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