Reviews with content warning for Slavery - The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty

7 reviews

millibear's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

If it wasn't clear, this book is framed around Michael Twitty's journey of discovery regarding his family roots so it's more memoir than a back-to-front culinary history. It's a passionately researched book--learned a lot even just from unexplained context (like John de Conqueror root). As a piece of narrative nonfiction, all the attributions are going to be in the end of the book (if you were looking for them during, like I was).

Loved Twitty's specificity where he could be particular research and records permitting. I don't feel like the chapters themselves were tightly structured, but that could partly be to my own confusion early on on how much memoir vs. history text the book was. Overall, I think this accomplished what Twitty set out to do. I'm glad I read it and glad I could read Twitty's search through his histories and his meditations on food as ancestry in the violence of American slavery.

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jskstarr's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

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tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

A profound and often visceral exploration of the African roots of Southern US cuisine plus accounts of Twitty’s search for his own ancestry. A proud flag planted for culinary justice.

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