Culinary historian Michael Twitty has made a name for himself
touring the country to lecture about southern food traditions.
His new book, “The Cooking Gene,” is out today.
It explores the history of cuisine in the American South,
by focusing on the people who laid the foundation for it—
enslaved Africans.
Twitty is currently on a teaching residency in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.
Dexter Thomas joined him there for a meal.
— Hey, ladies.
Hey, gentlemen.
What’s going on?
Yeah, shut up.
Or you will be breakfast.
Black folks were allowed to have hogs.
Weren’t allowed to have cattle.
But chickens, guinea fowl, which come from Africa,
those were under the control of enslaved Africans.
These chickens represent more than just the stereotype of black folks and fried chicken.
It represents empowerment.
— Twitty doesn’t just write about history,
he relives it—
by cooking the food that slaves cooked.
For his yearlong residency in Colonial Williamsburg,
Twitty teaches guests the food traditions of his enslaved ancestors.
He starts most days in the garden.
— Oh!
Good stuff, boy.
There you go.
Can’t have a pepperpot without a pot pepper.
Yessir!
A little rosemary and we’re done.
— You’re a historian.
— Mhm.
— There’s a lot of ways you could study history.
— Right.
— Why food?
— People associate food with identity.
Food is the way of all human beings on Earth to say,
“We eat this, this is us.”
“They eat that, and that is not us.”
Everybody has this deep connections to gastronomy
in their personal, familial lives.
You know, our story is told through our plates.
— Every year,
half a million tourists visit Colonial Williamsburg for a sanitized glimpse at 18th-century living.
— Let’s go see!
— Everything that’s not behind a rope is alright.
— There’s no fancy knives and no air conditioning in Twitty’s kitchen—
just his food and the uncomfortable truth.
— You’re making southern cooking, right?
— Yeah.
— And a lot of people go to a certain place in their mind, I think, when they hear that.
They go to a certain nostalgia.
— Especially when I’m wearing these clothes.
— Yeah, and that nostalgia isn’t always a good thing
for people who look like you and me.
— Yes.
— You put yourself in a very strange position.
— I put myself in a place of subversion.
— Okay.
Because you go in there and they’re expecting something?
— Yes.
And sometimes they don’t get what they want and it hurts their feelings,
and they’re butthurt.
But a lot of people who I deal with are conservative white folks
who actually hear me talk and they come to new conclusions.
And I’m proud of that.
We’re very aware of certain stereotypes, but get this:
they sold chickens and sold vegetables so they could buy their husbands’ freedom.
You understand me?
— I guess that’s what I want to know is,
who is this book for?
— Everybody.
I want everybody at the same table.
I want the African-American person who wants to figure out what their heritage is
to sit next to the white person who goes,
“You know, I’m really curious and respectful of African-American food tradition, African tradition.”
“I wanna learn more about that.”
I want them to sit next to the person who goes,
“I just like to eat.”
— The food looked good,
but the only way I could get a plate was to help out in the kitchen.
— Welcome to the plantation South.
— Thank you very much.
— You need clothes for the plantation South.
— I have clothes.
— No, real clothes, historic clothes,
so you can feel like your ancestors felt.
Real slave clothes.
— I’m not sure I wanna feel like that.
— Uh, too bad.
You’re gonna get dressed.
Aw, get it now!
— Aw, man.
— I love it.
Well, how does that feel?
— I feel the part.
— Yeah.
— I dunno if that’s a good thing.
— I want you take all those vegetables, and put them in that pot right there.
Yessir, just dump them all in.
— Yeah, this is hot.
— Yeah, hot, ain’t it?
— Do you just get used to this?
— You never get used to it.
How do your eyes feel right now?
— They are burning.
— Yes. — Yeah.
— Is the smoke getting to you?
— The smoke been got to me, yeah.
— Uh-huh.
Come on away from there, I don’t want you to die.
Okay.
You might as well get to shucking corn now.
— How does one shuck corn?
I’ve done this once.
— Where’d they get you from?
Boston?
Toronto?
Gonna shuck that corn, mhmm.
Gonna shuck it good, mhmm.
Gonna eat it ‘till my belly full.
Food is more than just, you know,
chicken and macaroni and cheese and greens and stuff.
It’s quite elegant.
It was the first American cuisine to really draw from the whole planet.
Because you had ingredients from Southeast Asia,
ingredients from the Middle East,
ingredients from Europe, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa,
all combined in our cooking.
Try this.
One of our black-eyed pea fritters.
It’s kinda like falafel, isn’t it?
— It is.
Man, that is really good.
This is not my grandmother’s fried chicken.
— But…
— It’s close.
— That’s all I want.
That’s all I want in life.
— That’s all I want in life. — That is close.
That’s it.
That’s the highest compliment.