The Surprisingly Local Roots of Classic Thanksgiving Dishes
Laura, Center for Brooklyn History, Center for Brooklyn History
As I flipped through cookbooks for Thanksgiving prep, I encountered one that shifted my perception on our world and its history: The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen by Sean Sherman and Beth Dooley. Sherman is an Ogalala Lakota Sioux and James Beard Award-winning chef who runs Owamni, a highly esteemed Indigenous restaurant based in Minneapolis. His cookbook only uses ingredients native to the Americas, with a heavy emphasis on North American ingredients, such as trout, cranberries, duck, juniper, maple, wild rice and the three sisters. Notably, it does not use any European staples such as…
Essential Cookbooks by Black Chefs and Authors
Soul food has become one of most prevalent and popular cuisines in the United States. As with Soul music, when a sensory experience feels so familiar, or so American it seems to have soul, we're really talking about its roots in the African diaspora. In the African American community, the art of cooking arises from a longing to feed others, gather family and friends, and keep traditions alive. Food is not solely a way of showing love, but it's also a means to pass traditions down from one family to another and an experience that transcends geographic or cultural boundaries, so I pulled…