The event comes just before Rosh Hashanah (aka the Jewish New Year) where foods like apples, honey, and round challah bread are symbolic offerings for the year ahead.Īhead of his conversation at the museum on Independence Mall, here are three takeaways from Twitty about introspection, uncovering your identities, and exploring culinary tradition. 22 hosts a ticketed book signing and discussion with Twitty and Jewish culinary researcher Joan Nathan. The Weitzman Museum of American Jewish History on Sept. “It’s a way empathy, compassion, and consideration for your neighbor.” “I want food to help you understand why you exist at all,” Twitty told Billy Penn. In his new release, “Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American American Jew”, the author takes readers on a journey through the food traditions of the African Atlantic and global Jewish diasporas to uncover the similarities between the two.

To Twitty, food is a roadmap for discovering truths about human connection. His books “ The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South” and “ Rice: A Savor the South” scrutinize American history to reveal the African diaspora’s impact on the foods we eat today, from barbecued meats to Jambalaya. Writer and historian Michael Twitty uses it as a catalyst for discussions on history, economics, and the power structures that shape modern society.Ī Black, Jewish, and Southern queer man, Twitty won a James Beard Book Award for his ability to probe the intersections of personal experience, culinary tradition, and the racial politics of food.

It has the complexity of garam masala without quite the punch and heat.Food is more than just what’s on the plate. While it takes its main cues from quatre épices, a spice mix of pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and ground ginger common in French cooking, it also helped to preserve both medieval and Silk Road flavors in Southern foodways, as well as the flavors of West Africa, where indigenous and Middle Eastern spices had long influenced the cuisine.

Kitchen pepper is an old-school spice mixture that was very popular in early American cooking, especially in the coastal South. Be careful-it tends to be salty, so go lightly at first to find your bearings. If you have access to an international market, it will have Maggi cubes, and you can use them to make a Maggi broth to replace the stock here-just follow the instructions on the package.

Maggi, a popular imported bouillon cube ubiquitous in West Africa, has become part of the flavor profile of everything there. This famous West African rice is named after the Wolof people of Senegal and Gambia, who themselves call it benachin.

Rice by michael twitty