Cover image for The cooking gene : a journey through African American culinary history in the Old South
The cooking gene : a journey through African American culinary history in the Old South
Title:
The cooking gene : a journey through African American culinary history in the Old South
ISBN:
9780062379290
Publication Date:
2017
Edition:
1st ed.
Publication Info:
New York, NY : Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins, 2017.
Material Type:
Hardcover Book
Physical Description:
xvii, 443 p., 8 unnumbered pages of plates : col. ill. ; 24 cm.
Language:
English
Contents:
Preface: The Old South -- No more whistling walk for me -- Hating my soul -- Mise en place -- Mishpocheh -- Missing pieces -- No nigger blood -- "White man in the woodpile" -- 0.01 percent -- Sweet tooth -- Mothers of slaves -- Alma mater -- Chesapeake gold -- The Queen -- Adam in the garden -- Shake dem 'simmons down -- All creatures of our G-d and king -- The Devil's half acre -- "The King's cuisine" -- Crossroads -- The old country -- Sankofa.
Abstract:
"A renowned culinary historian offers a fresh perspective on our most divisive cultural issue, race, in this illuminating memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture that traces his ancestry - both black and white - through food, from Africa to America and slavery to freedom. Southern food is integral to the American culinary tradition, yet the question of who "owns" it is one of the most provocative touch points in our ongoing struggles over race. Michael W. Twitty traces the roots of his own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine. 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. He sifts through stories, recipes, genetic tests, and historical documents, and travels from Civil War battlefields in Virginia to synagogues in Alabama to Black-owned organic farms in Georgia. As he takes us through his ancestral culinary history, Twitty suggests that healing may come from embracing the discomfort of the Southern past. 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. Michael W. Twitty is a culinary and cultural historian and the creator of Afroculinaria.com, the first blog devoted to African American historic foodways and their legacy"--Provided by publisher.
Holds: Copies: