Devastation and Celebration: Digging into Culinary Roots, Race, and Place

Yona Sipos

Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2019, vol. 9, issue 1

Abstract: First paragraphs: If you don’t already follow Michael Twitty (@koshersoul on Twitter), you are missing out on reflections and extended commentary on his powerful and acclaimed book, The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South. On October 11, 2018, the author tweeted, “The Cooking Gene is a culinary Roots. I wanted other families in African America and the African Atlantic to see ways they could do similar work. I wanted to introduce my country to [its] Black Southern culinary heritage and West Africans to their cousins.” He clarifies, “My book is NOT a cookbook. It is a food memoir plus culinary history plus genealogical detective story with recipes. . . . 21 or so.” This concise meta-analysis allows details and treasures of the 425 pages of text, including a new afterword, to fall into sharper relief. Of his winding and comprehensive book, Twitty writes in the author’s note, “If it were possible to give a linear, orderly, soup to nuts version of my story or any of my family’s without resorting to genre gymnastics, I would have considered it. Instead, I am pleased with the journey as it has revealed itself to me” (p. 427). . . .

Keywords: International Development; Community/Rural/Urban Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/360058/files/681.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:joafsc:360058

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development from Center for Transformative Action, Cornell University
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().