Friday, November 15, 2024

The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South

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Price: $16.99
(as of Aug 01, 2024 01:29:49 UTC – Details)


2018 James Beard Foundation Book of the Year | 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award Winner inWriting | Nominee for the 2018 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Nonfiction | #75 on The Root100 2018

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. 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.

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 He sifts through stories, recipes, genetic tests, and historical documents, and travels from Civil War battlefields in Virginia to synagogues in Alabama to Black-owned organic farms in Georgia.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.

Illustrations by Stephen Crotts

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07B7LJSG1
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Amistad; Illustrated edition (July 31, 2018)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 31, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 12570 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 467 pages

Customers say

Customers find the plot fascinating and incredible, focusing on African American history through a human touch. They also appreciate the poetic prose and mesmerizing writing style. Readers describe the topic as fascinating and worthwhile, and the book as necessary and timely. They say the storyline is amazing and gives an amazing personal history. Customers also say the recipes are excellent.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

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