Michael W. Twitty: Learn About the Culinary Historian

Michael W. Twitty is an award-winning writer, culinary historian, and educator from Washington, DC, dedicated to preserving and amplifying African American foodways. The author of the groundbreaking book The Cooking Gene, which chronicles the exploration of his family history and the impact of enslaved Africans on cooking practices and agriculture in the American South, Michael has become one of the country’s go-to scholars on African American food. Combining both his African American and Jewish identities in his dishes, ingredients, and cooking techniques, Michael uses food to explore how history and ancestry show up in kitchens.

Michael’s investigation of the food on his table led him to work in plantation fields in the American South to research African American history, specifically the historical practices of enslaved cooking. Using the moniker “the Antebellum Chef,” Michael picked cotton, worked tobacco, chopped wood, and waded into alligator-infested rice fields in the hope of better understanding the African American culinary past and restoring culinary justice.

Dressed in historically accurate slave clothing of the pre–US Civil War South, Michael spent countless hours preparing, cooking, and studying hearth cooking (a technique similar to what many enslaved Africans used to prepare meals for plantation owners) in plantation kitchens for audiences. He did so to communicate and illustrate what his enslaved ancestors had to endure.

He called it “historic interpretation,” an immersive way of learning and cooking. The experience led him to better understand the tastes of home that enslaved people brought with them from Africa and the challenges they faced making food in these specific circumstances. It illuminated how African American food is distinct: a special alchemy of Indigenous African ingredients rooted in the context of an alien place, leading to new, innovative techniques and recipe variations.

Michael W. Twitty started his food blog, Afroculinaria: Exploring Culinary Traditions of Africa, African America, and the African Diaspora, in 2011 to document his work and share stories and recipes. “Afroculinaria was about creating a space where I could begin to tell stories that were not being told about food and Black people,” he says.

In 2012, Michael began the Southern Discomfort Tour, a trip through the Southern United States during which he researched the experiences of enslaved Africans through their food. Michael chronicled these experiences on his blog and in The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South (2017), his James Beard Award–winning book.

As part of Michael W. Twitty’s mission to help cooks and eaters worldwide gain a deeper understanding of African American cooking, United States history, and the many ties between the American South and the African continent, he has made many public appearances. Here are some of the most notable:

1. 1. The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross: In 2013, Michael appeared on an episode of the six-part miniseries The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., which explored the lives of the enslaved Africans who first arrived in Jamestown, Virginia.
2. 2. TED2016: In 2016, Michael presented his TED Talk “Gastronomy and the Social Justice Reality of Food” in Vancouver, a major city in Western Canada.
3. 3. Colonial Williamsburg: In February 2017, Michael became the first Revolutionary in Residence at Colonial Williamsburg. The Revolutionary in Residence Program honors the achievements of radical thinkers who connect present-day issues to the past.
4. 4. Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi: Michael appeared on Padma Lakshmi’s TV series Taste the Nation in 2020 to amplify Gullah foodways in South Carolina.
5. 5. High on the Hog: In Netflix’s docuseries High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America (2021), Michael cooks okra soup over a wood fire on a South Carolina plantation.
6. 6. Waffles + Mochi: Michael appeared in the “Rice” episode of former first lady Michelle Obama’s children’s cooking show Waffles + Mochi (2021), educating families about the origins and importance of this grain.

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