Dig Deeper!
Links to learn more about the food, culinary, and agriculture folks featured on our Instagram and Tik Tok!
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Austin Leslie
A brilliant chef from New Orleans who was beloved for his fried chicken and carrying on the legacy of creole cuisine.
Books
Creole Soul by Austin Leslie
Creole Feast by Nathaniel Burton and Rudy Lombard
Articles
Austin Leslie’s Fried Chicken Recipe by NOLA Cuisine
Great Chefs of New Orleans: Austin Leslie by NOLA Cuisine
Austin Leslie, 71, Dies; Famed for Fried Chicken by Kim Severson in NYT
Austin Leslie was New Orleans Creole Fried Chicken King by RL Reeves Jr on Scrumptious Chef
Curriculum
Videos and Multimedia
Cooking with John Folse - Soul Food | A Taste of Louisiana with Chef John Folse & Company (1991)
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Arturo Schomburg
Although he’s best known for founding one of the largest collections of Black literature, art, and other artifacts in the world in Harlem, Schomburg also compiled the outline for a Black-centered food book which would go one to influence several contemporary food historians.
Real Life Locations/Exhibits
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture | The New York Public Library
Articles
Arturo Schomburg His Life & Legacyuro Schomburg His Life & Legacy by NYPL
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Biography by Biography
How America Rediscovered a Cookbook From the Harlem Renaissance - by Mayukh Sen for Gastro Obscura
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg | National Museum of African American History and Culture (si.edu)
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Princess Pamela
A South Carolina chef who brought nourishment and entertainment to Black and Brown communities and artists up and down the South and North East corridor of the U.S. for over half a century, but mysteriously disappeared in the 90s.
Book
Princess Pamela's Soul Food Cookbook: A Mouth-Watering Treasury of Afro-American Recipes by Pamela Strobel
Articles
From an East Village Soul Food Cabaret, Princess Pamela’s Recipe for Sauce Beautiful
She Was a Soul Food Sensation. Then, 19 Years Ago, She Disappeared by Mayukh Sen for Food52
Videos and Multimedia
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Black and Brown Baking Inventors
Joseph Lee
Joseph Lee via Invent.org
How This Unsung Black Entrepreneur Changed The Food Industry Forever—And Made A Lot Of Dough by Brianne Garrett via Forbes
Bread Science and Black History by Tamika Sims, PhD via FoodInsight.org
Alexander P. Ashbourne
A formerly enslaved wheat farmer who invented the biscuit cutter!
Edmond Albius
A botanist who revolutionized vanilla cultivation by learning how to pollinate the flowers.
Videos and Multimedia
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Edna Lewis
Edna Lewis was born in 1916 into a town founded by former enslaved people of the African diaspora which included her grandfather. These freed people bought the land and founded a vibrant farming community there. Here Ms. Lewis would master a Virginia-style of Southern cooking, anchored in the use of farm-fresh ingredients.
Books
Curriculum
Articles
Edna Lewis by Sara Franklin via Kinfolk
The People of Freetown by Mayukh Sen via Popula, 18 Sept. 2018, .
Videos and Multimedia
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Vertmae Smart-Grosvenor
Dr. Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor was a culinary griot, cook, writer, actress, traveler, and NPR commentator (1980s through the early 00s) who was born and raised in the Gullah Geechee community of Daufuskie Island in South Carolina.
Book
Vibration Cooking: or, the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl by Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor. The University of Georgia Press, 2011.
Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap by Verta Mae By Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor
Curriculum
Articles
Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor Is the Unsung Godmother of American Food Writing by Mayukh Sen for VICE, 20 Feb. 2018, .
Videos and Multimedia
Vertamae Smart Grosvenor via New Mexico In Focus, a Production of NMPBS, 10 Feb. 2012.