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Nourishing the Soul: Celebrating Black Foodways & Cuisine

Collected, created, and written by Black chefs and authors, these books and video will deepen your appreciation for the foods, recipes, stories, and traditions woven into the fabric of American life.

  • Cover of Our South showing a plate with stuffed okra on a blue geometric-patterned placemat

    Our South: Black Food Through My Lens: Backcountry, Lowlands, Midlands, Lowcountry, Homeland / Ashleigh Shanti
    “Shanti, having already received recognition from the James Beard Foundation and Eater, plus her stint as a contestant on Top Chef, has written a modern cookbook classic that invites readers and cooks to join her as she shares her early life, her passion for history and food, and her rise to success. She takes readers to the places that helped define her culinary viewpoint, telling through recipes her story of being a Southerner, a chef, and a gay Black woman. The finished product is a treasure, with visits to cherished Southern locales, all with a nod to the African diaspora.”—Library Journal

  • Front cover of Homage showing a person in an apron dishing a stew from the pot into a bowl

    Homage: Recipes and Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen / Chris Scott
    In this tribute to those who came before him, renowned chef Chris Scott shares 100 dishes born of a unique blend of Southern, German, and Dutch cuisines, including Chicken Fried Steak with Sassafras Country Gravy, Charred Radicchio Salad with Roasted Grapes and Shaved Amish Cheddar, and the ultimate Whoopie Pies.

  • Front cover of Watermelon & Red Birds showing a person in a denim apron holding one of two glasses with an iced red drink

    Watermelon and Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations / Nicole A. Taylor
    “Watermelon and Red Birds is a call for us all to celebrate Black joy and freedom in its many facets. Nicole Taylor has given the world a breathtaking cookbook that is grounded in history and tradition while keeping one eye on the ever-evolving nature of culture, customs, and foodways.”—Bryant Terry, James Beard award-winning author

  • Front cover of Between Harlem and Heaven showing a Black persons hand clutching a handful of fresh produce

    Between Harlem and Heaven: Afro-Asian-American Cooking for Big Nights, Weeknights & Every Day / JJ Johnson
    Winner of the James Beard Award: Best American Cookbook
    In two of the most renowned and historic venues in Harlem, Alexander Smalls and JJ Johnson created a unique take on the Afro-Asian-American flavor profile. Their foundation was a collective three decades of traveling the African diaspora, meeting and eating with chefs of color, and researching the wide reach of a truly global cuisine; their inspiration was how African, Asian, and African American influences crisscrossed cuisines all around the world. They present here for the first time over 100 recipes that go beyond just one place, taking you somewhere between Harlem and heaven.
    Other format: ebook (hoopla)

  • Front cover of Ghetto Gastro: bold white type against a black background, no images

    Ghetto Gastro Presents Black Power Kitchen / Jon Gray
    The Bronx-based creative and culinary collective delivers a highly visual manifesto for living and eating to stimulate the mind, body, and heart, in a book that promotes Black excellence through recipes, art, and thought-provoking text.

  • Front cover of For the Culture showing silhouettes of black hands gently reaching for colorful floating petals

    For the Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food; Interviews, Inspiration, and Recipes / Klancy Miller
    Winner of the 2024 IACP Cookbook Award for Literary or Historical Food Writing
    “What an amazing book that’s so inspiring, important, and needed. Klancy gives a space for these incredible chefs, goddesses, and queens to shine and be recognized. For the Culture is not just a story of Black women in the culinary space, it’s the story of diaspora and American cooking.”—celebrity chef and restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson
    Other format: audio (hoopla)

  • Front cover of Notes from a Young Black Chef showing a painting of author Kwame Onwuachi, wearing eyeglasses and chef's whites, his arms are folded against his chest. The background is bright red.

    Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir / Kwame Onwuachi
    “A young Black chef’s raw and gritty tale of survival, ingenuity, and hustling. Kwame takes us on this journey where he eventually finds himself captivated by the culinary world of fine dining.”—chef and restaurateur Carla Hall
    Also available as a young adult edition: TEEN BIO ONWUACHI

  • Front cover of The Rise showing a color photograph of author Marcus Samuelsson, smiling and looking off camera, to his left. He's standing against a stone wall. Images of various fresh ingredients are aligned along the right side.

    The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food / Marcus Samuelsson
    “Reminding us that Black food is not monolithic and is more than soul food, award-winning chef Samuelsson  (The  Red Rooster Cookbook) creates a groundbreaking resource devoted to Black foodways and the  ongoing history of food as a part of racial justice. Samuelsson’s enthusiasm and appreciation shine throughout this inviting collection, a must-read for all interested in Black foodways and culinary history.”—Library Journal

  • Front cover of Jubilee showing an overhead view of a serving dish of cooked shrimp in a sauce. A Black person's hands are on either side. A pale blue table linen is underneath.

    Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking / Toni Tipton-Martin
    James Beard Award Winner; IACP Award Winner; IACP Book of the Year
    “By offering a new narrative of African American cuisine, including a long-overdue recognition to generations of Black chefs and hundreds of recipes with stunning photographs by Jerrelle Guy (and an all-African American creative team), Tipton-Martin celebrates and honors the cultural hallmarks that allow Black American culture to flourish—even when societal failures attempt to decimate it.”—Serious Eats

  • Front cover of Roots Heart Soul showing a photograph of a Black person's hands lifting handfuls of fresh okra from a basket of the produce

    Roots, Heart, Soul: The Story, Celebration, and Recipes of Afro Cuisine in America / Todd Richards
    “In his latest cookbook, chef, restaurateur, author, and two-time James Beard nominee Richards…delves into the foodways of his ancestors and, in doing so, highlights the Afro-diaspora and its delicious culinary heritage in the U.S. and beyond.”—Library Journal
    Other format: ebook (hoopla)

  • Front cover of Black Food: shows the title and author name in bold, colorful letters against a solid black background. No images.

    Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora / Bryant Terry
    “This exuberant work cooked up by James Beard Award–winning chef Terry is way more than a notable collection of recipes. Stuffed with essays, poetry, and artwork from a cast of brilliant creatives with their finger on the pulse of Black culture and the culinary world, it sweeps readers from West Africa to Jamaica to New York with sumptuous stories that feed the soul.”—Publishers Weekly

  • Front cover of Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts showing an old, black-and-white photo of a Black woman wearing an antebellum dress on one side and on the other a photo, taken from overhead, pf 5 biscuits on a decorative tin tray

    Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Recipes and Stories from Five Generations of Black Mountain Cooks / Crystal Wilkinson
    A lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden stories of Black Appalachians through powerful essays and forty comforting recipes from a former Poet Laureate of Kentucky.

  • Front cover of Cooking for the Culture showing only the tattooed, flexed arm of author Toya Boudy. In her hand, which has a sapphire ring on one finger, she's clutching a wedge of watermelon

    Cooking for the Culture: Recipes and Stories from the New Orleans Streets to the Table / Toya Boudy
    “Childhood memories, family love, and personal struggles inform [Boudy’s] cooking  and the  way she built her career and developed her passion for cooking. Telling her life story via food, she shares dishes that cover a wide range of flavors but are true to her NOLA roots. Boudy also includes tips learned over time, ranging from cleaning seafood to procuring ingredients.”—Library Journal

  • Front cover of Grandbaby Cakes showing a three-layer cake on a pedestal platter against a light pink background

    Grandbaby Cakes: Modern Recipes, Vintage Charm, Soulful Memories / Jocelyn Delk Adams
    “Adams, creator of food blog Grandbaby Cakes, inherited a passion for cakes and baking from Big Mama, her grandmother. Her debut cookbook comprises 50 cakes of all kinds (e.g., pound cakes, layer cakes, sheet cakes, cupcakes, ice cream cakes), but it’s her inventive reinterpretations of Southern classics, such as pineapple upside-down hummingbird pound cake and ‘nana pudding tiramisu cake, that truly shine.”—Library Journal

Video

  • DVD cover of Soul Food showing each letter of the title containing a different kind of soul food including black-eyed peas, ham, and sweet potatoes. Brown background. PBS banner across top.

    Soul Food Junkies: A Film About Food, Family, and Tradition / PBS
    Award-winning filmmaker Byron Hurt offers a fascinating exploration of the soul food tradition, its relevance to Black cultural identity, and its continuing popularity despite the known dangers of high-fat, high-calorie diets. Inspired by his father’s lifelong love affair with soul food even in the face of a life-threatening health crisis, Hurt discovers that the relationship between African Americans and dishes like ribs, grits, and fried chicken is deep-rooted and culturally based.
    Other format: streaming video (Kanopy)

Ebooks on hoopla

  • Front cover of Beyond the Kitchen Table: Top shows a kitchen work surface with bowls and ingredients shown from overhead and a Black person's hands; the bottom shows colorful spices and herbs configured to show every continent of the world

    Beyond the Kitchen Table: Black Women and Global Food Systems / Priscilla McCutheon, Latrica E. Best, and Theresa Rajack-Talley
    Looking deeply into Black women’s roles—economically, environmentally, and socially—in food and agriculture systems in the Caribbean, Africa, and the United States, the contributors address the ways Black women, both now and in the past, have used food as a part of community building and sustenance. They also examine matrilineal food-based education; the importance of Black women’s social, cultural, and familial networks in addressing nutrition and food insecurity; the ways gender intersects with class and race globally when thinking about food; and how women-led science and technology initiatives can be used to create healthier and more just food systems.

  • Front cover of Food Power Politics showing a stylized photo of two Black women wearing 1960s dresses; one is seated at a table, the other is standing. Both are looking down at papers on the table. Bushels of food are in the right foreground.

    Food Power Politics / Bobby J. Smith II
    Smith unearths a food story buried deep within the soil of American civil rights history. Drawing on archival research, interviews, and oral histories, the author re-examines the Mississippi civil rights movement as a period when activists expanded the meaning of civil rights to address food as integral to sociopolitical and economic conditions.

  • Front cover of Power Hungry showing a black-and-white photo of two Black women standing over a table where several Black children are seated, eating. The women appear to be serving them food and milk. The background is a red and white sunburst.

    Power Hungry: Women of the Black Panther Party and Freedom Summer and Their Fight to Feed a Movement / Suzanne Cope
    Two unsung women whose power using food as a political weapon during the civil rights movement was so great it brought the ire of government agents working against them. These two women’s tales, separated by a handful of years, tell the same story: how food was used by women as a potent and necessary ideological tool in both the rural South and urban North to create lasting social and political change.

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