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

4.0

I was expecting something more focused on cooking and recipes than what this book actually is, a poetic meditation on personal, family and collective history and trauma. Twitty's writing is gorgeous and he openly admits that his project is ultimately impossible. He's trying to uncover all the influences that led to who he is, the tangled history of slavery and forced migration from Africa and intermingling of European ancestors, likely through rape. You really sense his enormous need to try to excavate all these lost histories through genealogy and DNA analysis. Sometimes for me it felt like he was getting too lost in the details, recounting every percentage on different DNA reports, every ancestor he was able to name, every clue he tried to track down. But in doing so he invites the reader into this search, for a past that can not ever truly be found because it has been forcibly destroyed. And throughout it all is food as memory, as spiritual practice, as survival, as hope.
It felt like a long read but ultimately beautiful and aching with love for all the influences and ancestors who made African American food what it is.