Jessica B. Harris

Gives interesting historical vignettes of metro influences on food - such as a reason why possum is associated with Southern diet (they could be hunted at night to supplement food rations after slave chores were completed.) Also such as - caterers evolved from public butlers in Philadelphia for whites who could not afford slaves. Ocra, an African vegetable, is still a staple in Southern diet. There are also many interesting facts about slavery in general, unrelated to any food influences.

On the other hand, one wonders if some explanations are assumptions, more than facts. Cf., are kitchens in out-buildings only to prevent house fires? It is common elsewhere to keep cooking smells out of the main house.

All the name-dropping-personal-anecdotes read like personal aggrandizement. Descriptions of the author’s love for New Orleans (113-115) are protracted and only marginally germane to the continuity of the book. I find the cadence of the narrative of the early chapters awkward.

The book does not seem to intend to give exact connections between specific diets and African or African/American influences (except less noble parts of pig in Harlem p. 180). Rather, it traces migrations and tendencies of black populations and personages to affirm the cross-pollination of influences between black diets and European/American diets. For example, famous black cooks in the burgeoning West were more likely to serve elegant European meals to the newly-minted elite than Southern or African cooking. For example, internationalism after WWII diversified the diet of African Americans, as it did for the world.

In summary, let the author take credit for acknowledging “the integral part that we (blacks, I suppose) have played in the formation of the American culinary ethos.” (244)… (more)