The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.52 (994 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B01BSJIBJI |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 538 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-04-19 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
In this unique memoir, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty takes readers to the white-hot center of this fight, tracing the roots of his own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine. Along the way, he reveals a truth that is more than skin deep—the power that food has to bring the kin of the enslaved and their former slaveholders to the table, where they can discover the real America together.. From the tobacco and rice farms of colonial times to plantation kitchens and backbreaking cotton fields, Twitty tells his family story through the foods that enabled his ancestors’ survival across three centuries. As he takes us through his ancestral culinary history, Twitty suggests that healing may come from embracing the discomfort of the Southern past. He sifts through stories, recipes, genetic tests, and historical documents, and travels from Civil War battlefields in Virginia to synagogues in Alabama to Black-owned organic farms in Georgia. A renowned culinary historian offers a fresh perspective on our most di
Twitty helps restore our awareness of their struggles and successes bite by bite, giving us a true taste of the past.” (Dr. “Slavery made the world of our ancestors incredibly remote to us. Thankfully, the work of Michael W. Twitty shines a stunningly bright light on the state of Southern food with this quest to find himself. Twitty’s no-nonsense style and interlaced with moments of levity, The Cooking Gene is gritty, compelling, and enlightening – a mix of personal narrative and the history of race, politics, economics and enslavement that will broaden notions of African-American culinary identity.” (Toni Tipton-Martin, James Beard Award-winning author of The Jemima Code)“Twitty ably joins past and present, puzzling out culinary myst
Twitty is a noted culinary and cultural historian and the creator of Afroculinaria, the first blog devoted to African American historic foodways and their legacies. His work has appeared in Ebony, the Guardian, and on NPR. Twitty has appeared throughout the media, including on NPR’s The Splendid Ta