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therealkathryn's review
5.0
Thought-provoking and intense. Twitty makes a compelling case that Southern food's heritage comes from the cooking styles and techniques of the enslaved people brought from Africa. I found the writing at times dense, there were many lists of different foods of an area, and I couldn't always follow along with the genealogy, but I didn't feel those detracted from the main message of the work.
golden_lily's review
3.0
DNF at 200 pages. Very long and in depth. More memoir than food writing. I'd love to finish it one day, but my library hold expired because it's a hard read.
pianogirlblue's review
4.0
This book was overall fascinating, if a bit dry at points. It provided a new perspective on the history and experience of Blacks in the US by examining the culinary history of Southern food.
jherta's review
5.0
At first I was a little disappointed this book didn’t fit what I thought it would be—a more linear history of Soul/Southern food traced through the roots of slavery. It’s a little bit of that, but it reminds me more of another favorite of mine—On The Road. Both center on a man traveling to discover their personal American Story, and telling that story in a beautifully written steam of consciousness. In this instance a history and culture that has been suppressed for hundreds of years through horrific violence, and its impact on the author’s identity, is reclaimed. It importantly reinforces the idea that the biggest influence on Southern Cuisine was the cooking of enslaved Africans and their descendants. It also contextualizes Soul/Southern food through the lens of violent oppression versus the fight to survive and retain humanity and culture. From an outsider’s view it seems to serve as a manifesto for African Americans to be empowered to tell their own stories and make speaking directly to their communities the priority—and only incidentally to those in privilege such as myself. As a Southerner and an American I know these experiences and contributions of a people whose stories, cultures, and bodies have been historically suppressed/oppressed, is a vital and important history to tell.
jeffburns's review
5.0
The best of Southern and good history
An essential read for anyone like me, heavily interested in both southern and food history, and racial history in the South. It spoke to me as a white native South Georgian, descended from sharecroppers, like few other books have. And Gritty is a fantastic writer. I can't wait to see him in person sometime.
An essential read for anyone like me, heavily interested in both southern and food history, and racial history in the South. It spoke to me as a white native South Georgian, descended from sharecroppers, like few other books have. And Gritty is a fantastic writer. I can't wait to see him in person sometime.
bookgirlmagic's review
5.0
The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty took me places I wasn’t expecting to go! Like, y’all don’t understand. I LIVED in Charleston, SC (while in college) for 2.5 years and yet still learned so much about it from this book.
In the middle of the book, I thought to myself....I’ve never been so excited to read a chapter in my life. Learning about the Gullah-Geechee’s of Charleston, SC and how they came to be. I’ve always been fascinated when it came to the language and how peeps born and raised in SC, speak like they’re from the islands. lol It also speaks on Low Country cooking and how it too came to be. So cool to read up on the history of a place that i lived in for a couple years.
I’m appreciative of all the research and effort that Mr. Twitty put into this book. I am a foodie and it was interesting to hear about all of the comfort foods that we eat so often, how our ancestors grew and prepared them and the origins in which they came from. Our ancestors played such an important role in the foods we consume today.
I highly recommend this read. A ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me. A true gem that I will cherish and definitely revisit again!
In the middle of the book, I thought to myself....I’ve never been so excited to read a chapter in my life. Learning about the Gullah-Geechee’s of Charleston, SC and how they came to be. I’ve always been fascinated when it came to the language and how peeps born and raised in SC, speak like they’re from the islands. lol It also speaks on Low Country cooking and how it too came to be. So cool to read up on the history of a place that i lived in for a couple years.
I’m appreciative of all the research and effort that Mr. Twitty put into this book. I am a foodie and it was interesting to hear about all of the comfort foods that we eat so often, how our ancestors grew and prepared them and the origins in which they came from. Our ancestors played such an important role in the foods we consume today.
I highly recommend this read. A ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me. A true gem that I will cherish and definitely revisit again!
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