Another part is greater access to information. Go look at a vintage 1970s Betty Crocker cookbook. It's awful.
And also there's much greater assimilation of ethnic cuisines today than back then. Mostly when I cook at home I'll make Asian (Indian, Thai, some Chinese), Mexican, Italian, and French dishes.
No meatloaf. No casseroles with condensed soup. No jello molds. Nothing at all like
Cherry Pineapple Bologna with Potato Buds ™ . . .
++++
That is so true.
My mom was a horrible cook, a loving mother, but a horrible cook.
I mean have you ever had crunchy spagetti, or melted a pot on the stove top ?
She had a 3 foot shelf of cookbooks back then. How many ways can you cook hamburger ?
When growing up, exotic meals were KFC chicken in bucket at the end of the summer, and once or twice a year take out Chinese. We also went to an Italian restaurant on birthdays.
I grew up thinking restaurants were only for special occasions.
As I think about it, it is totally weird, that my parents had friend who lived in Japan, and and one from Africa, both who I remember so they were around a bit. Yet I grew up thinking everyone ate Meatloaf, salted cod, herring, burgers, shoe-leather liver, and pork chops.
I never tried Thai food until I was 40ish as the boss took us out to dinner.
It forced me as a teenager to buy my own wok due to a tv show "Wok with Yan" and cook stir fry.
Now, I like trying Indian and Pakistani recipes, and stir fry a lot, and planning to do some Vietnamese suppers.
DW has caught the fever and does a Moroccan dish which I like.