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538 reviews for:
The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South
Michael W. Twitty
4.12 AVERAGE
538 reviews for:
The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South
Michael W. Twitty
4.12 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
This is an extraordinary book unlike anything I have ever read before. It is basically a blend of memoir, genealogy, history, culinary history, cookbook, sociological analysis...it is truly incredible and an incredible achievement. Recommended for all.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
This is an exploration of ancestral identity in a history that is not only marred by the passage of time, but by the horrors of slavery, and the countless cultures ripped apart and forgotten in the process. In other words, The Cooking Gene is the story of a man setting out to collect the fragments of a million-piece puzzle, integrate them, and begin forming the landscape of himself and of African American culinary history. (Knowing that many pieces are lost forever.)
This cannot be a clear and linear story. That is impossible when resurrecting the past requires the combination of disparate pieces into a larger whole. But Twitty's fascination with, love for, and struggle with, his ancestral culture binds these pieces together. Experience, research, and exploration are integrated into a fact-filled tome that is still intensely personal and relatable. He takes abstract notions of identity, history, appropriation, and horror and makes the reader understand the interplay between them, and why all are still so very relevant today.
The so-called "jumps" in the narrative are essential to the experience. We don't think in neat, linear lines. As we put together pieces of a larger puzzle, we began to make our own connections, and that is what Twitty allows us to see. His responses to, and links between, elements in his journey are the web that binds the book together. Without the web, this is not a culinary history, but a collection of random facts with little context. Twitty helps us understand the undeniable contributions African Americans have made to American (and world) culture, how they've been forgotten, erased, or appropriated, and why it's so important to talk about and explore this space from the people directly linked to it.
Still, The Cooking Gene is universally relatable to anyone interested in the forgotten, in the culture traditions we create, and how they all inform who we are.
This is a story of resurrecting the forgotten and slicing through rampant amnesia. It's vague notions and names in ledgers becoming real, breathing, complicated people. It's a man wanting to understand himself and pay homage to the generations that met to make him who he is. It's a reminder that history is filtered into lists that ignore so many people, and so very much of the human experience. It's a reminder of how history continues to narrow, forget, and filter.
I hope this is the first of many books from Mr. Twitty. There is so much beauty in stepping away from forgetfulness and embracing resurrection -- of connecting with people who are gone, and seeing the world beyond the cold facts of history books and popularly edited culture.
This cannot be a clear and linear story. That is impossible when resurrecting the past requires the combination of disparate pieces into a larger whole. But Twitty's fascination with, love for, and struggle with, his ancestral culture binds these pieces together. Experience, research, and exploration are integrated into a fact-filled tome that is still intensely personal and relatable. He takes abstract notions of identity, history, appropriation, and horror and makes the reader understand the interplay between them, and why all are still so very relevant today.
The so-called "jumps" in the narrative are essential to the experience. We don't think in neat, linear lines. As we put together pieces of a larger puzzle, we began to make our own connections, and that is what Twitty allows us to see. His responses to, and links between, elements in his journey are the web that binds the book together. Without the web, this is not a culinary history, but a collection of random facts with little context. Twitty helps us understand the undeniable contributions African Americans have made to American (and world) culture, how they've been forgotten, erased, or appropriated, and why it's so important to talk about and explore this space from the people directly linked to it.
Still, The Cooking Gene is universally relatable to anyone interested in the forgotten, in the culture traditions we create, and how they all inform who we are.
This is a story of resurrecting the forgotten and slicing through rampant amnesia. It's vague notions and names in ledgers becoming real, breathing, complicated people. It's a man wanting to understand himself and pay homage to the generations that met to make him who he is. It's a reminder that history is filtered into lists that ignore so many people, and so very much of the human experience. It's a reminder of how history continues to narrow, forget, and filter.
I hope this is the first of many books from Mr. Twitty. There is so much beauty in stepping away from forgetfulness and embracing resurrection -- of connecting with people who are gone, and seeing the world beyond the cold facts of history books and popularly edited culture.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced