The intersection of food, authorship, and American identities has long intrigued me. Publications on this topic range from “The Proof of the Pudding: Of Haggis, Hasty Pudding, and Transatlantic Influence” (Early American Literature 31:2 1996) to Recipes for Respect: Foodways and Authorship in African America (Southern Foodways Alliance series Studies in People, Culture and Place from the University Press of Georgia, 2019) reviewed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Wall Street Journal, Journal of American History, Choice and other periodicals.
Hear my interview about Recipes with Professor Carrie Tippen on the New Books podcast
My work on Arturo Schomburg for Recipes for Respect led me to co-edit, with Laura E. Helton of the University of Delaware, African American Review‘s special issue on Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (54.1-2), now available http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/african_american_review
Black women cooks in history: In November 2024 America’s Test Kitchen will publish When Southern Women Cook, which will have a brief essay by me on Abby Fisher, who was the second African American woman to publish a cookbook. In 2025, the University of Michigan will publish a modern edition of Malinda Russell, the first Black woman to publish a cookbook in the United States, with my foreword.