Bound to the Fire: How Virginia's Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.11 (925 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B06WP8885V |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 502 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-12-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Historical archaeologist and historian Kelley Fanto Deetz is a research associate at the James River Institute for Archaeology, and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Randolph College, in Lynchburg, Virginia. Her work has appeared in National Geographic History. . Deetz, who was a professional chef for several years, is a contributor to The Ro
"Kelley Fanto Deetz understands the pleasures and pains of cooking well for large numbers, and she knows that creativity within slave labor camps is especially remarkable. As an archaeologist, she is just the person to revisit Virginia's Big House hearths. Wood, coauthor of Created Equal: A Social and Political History of the United States. Bound to the Fire brings life and dignity to the talented black artisansmany of them gifted chefswho presided in these steamy kitchens. Despite their skills, such lifetime prisoners received few compliments from their diners, no wages from their owners, and only patronizing nods from generations of white writers and historians. Deetz uses letters and wills, utensils and cooking pots, even recipes
In grocery store aisles and kitchens across the country, smiling images of "Aunt Jemima" and other historical and fictional black cooks can be found on various food products and in advertising. However, their white owners overwhelmingly received the credit for their creations. Bound to the Fire not only uncovers their rich and complex stories and illuminates their role in plantation culture, but it celebrates their living legacy with the recipes that they created and passed down to future generations.. Although these images are sanitized and romanticized in American popular culture, they represent t