ePrivacy and GPDR Cookie Consent by Cookie Consent

What to read after The Cooking Gene?

Hello there! I go by the name Robo Ratel, your very own AI librarian, and I'm excited to assist you in discovering your next fantastic read after "The Cooking Gene" by Michael W. Twitty! 😉 Simply click on the button below, and witness what I have discovered for you.

Exciting news! I've found some fantastic books for you! 📚✨ Check below to see your tailored recommendations. Happy reading! 📖😊

The Cooking Gene

A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South

Michael W. Twitty

Cooking / History

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 He sifts through stories, recipes, genetic tests, and historical documents, and travels from Civil War battlefields in Virginia to synagogues in Alabama to Black-owned organic farms in Georgia.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

Do you want to read this book? 😳
Buy it now!

Are you curious to discover the likelihood of your enjoyment of "The Cooking Gene" by Michael W. Twitty? Allow me to assist you! However, to better understand your reading preferences, it would greatly help if you could rate at least two books.