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Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks
University of Texas Press
September 2015
On Sale: September 15, 2015
264 pages
ISBN: 0292745486
EAN: 9780292745483
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Cooking / Food | Cookbooks
Women of African descent have contributed to America’s food
culture for centuries, but their rich and varied involvement
is still overshadowed by the demeaning stereotype of an
illiterate “Aunt Jemima” who cooked mostly by natural
instinct. To discover the true role of black women in the
creation of American, and especially southern, cuisine, Toni
Tipton-Martin has spent years amassing one of the world’s
largest private collections of cookbooks published by
African American authors, looking for evidence of their
impact on American food, families, and communities and for
ways we might use that knowledge to inspire community
wellness of every kind. The Jemima Code
presents more than 150 black cookbooks that range from a
rare 1827 house servant’s manual, the first book published
by an African American in the trade, to modern classics by
authors such as Edna Lewis and Vertamae Grosvenor. The books
are arranged chronologically and illustrated with photos of
their covers; many also display selected interior pages,
including recipes. Tipton-Martin provides notes on the
authors and their contributions and the significance of each
book, while her chapter introductions summarize the cultural
history reflected in the books that follow. These cookbooks
offer firsthand evidence that African Americans cooked
creative masterpieces from meager provisions, educated young
chefs, operated food businesses, and nourished the African
American community through the long struggle for human
rights. The Jemima Code transforms America’s most
maligned kitchen servant into an inspirational and powerful
model of culinary wisdom and cultural authority.
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