WELCOME!
Toni is an award-winning food and nutrition journalist using cultural heritage and cooking for social change. In an era when kitchen competency is defined by celebrity chefs on television and the internet, Toni is sharing the real-life stories of this country’s invisible African American cooks through her rare book collection, cooking classes, talks and presentations. Her hope is that by championing the professional skills and kitchen wisdom of generations of black cooks, these iconic figures will be recognized as culinary role models from whom everyone can learn.
BRINGING BACK THE BANDANA
My grandmother Nannie was a sturdy woman of Choctaw descent who cooked marvelously, but she passed on without leaving me a single morsel of her culinary wisdom. Unfortunately, the stereotyped image of African American women like Nannie in history and recipe books is completely opposite of my own personal experiences with creative, generous, hard-working women who did more toward the creation southern cuisine than simply kill the chickens and stir the pots.
The very women who taught me how to make flaky pie crust, to develop self-confidence in my children, and to pursue a career outside of the home have been characterized by demoralizing portraits of lowly, surly servants toiling away in southern kitchens. The emotional, spiritual, and physical strength behind their accomplishments has been ignored.
Those pioneering women in early America worked under stone-age conditions in the plantation kitchen house, and yet they were creative and expressive. They honed their kitchen skills the way culinary students do today: by observation and apprenticeship. The culinary arts were in most cases the only way they could express creativity, independence, and maintain their self-esteem. Cooking also increased their understanding of math, chemistry, and science, which they passed along to their kids.
I have dedicated my career to researching, writing, and speaking to audiences about this complex history, dishing up wisdom and recipes from previously undiscovered cookbooks to shed new light on the meaning of classic African-American cuisine. I also formed a foundation dedicated to promoting the connection between cultural heritage and good health.
My hope is that future generations will recognize and embrace the black cook as the loving and inspirational woman who cooked our meals from scratch, sewed our clothes, salved our wounds, nurtured our spirits, and generally elevated our character.
In today’s hectic times of fractured families, chemical additives, poor nutrition, and extreme childhood obesity this important role model can take us beyond our current notions of hurry-up cooking, pre-packaged mixes, and fast food and encourage us all to restore a little warmth to our kitchens of granite and steel.
@MarcusCooks Thank you for the love and for inviting me to be part of The Rise. I hope that like The Jemima Code, it leads the way to the next culinary revolution.
From today's Times. Meanwhile, in another sign of how tone-deaf and biased city officials can be, the Montopolis CDC was just turned down for a city grant to fix up and study the historic Burditt Prairie Cemetery. https://t.co/EkqofFE2Zm
The Pork Chops You’ll Make Again and Again
By
‘There are precious few feelings as nice as the one that comes from falling in love with a cookbook — with its aesthetics and point of view, with its larder and stories, above all with the flavors the recipes produce.’
NY Times Magazine