Black culinary history is a powerful story of resilience, creativity, and cultural preservation. From the deep roots of the okra plant to the groundbreaking work of Black chefs, writers, and historians, this legacy continues to shape the way we eat, cook, and tell our stories.

Join EatOkra at MOFAD for Binders of Black Culinary Legacy, a compelling panel conversation featuring Osayi Endolyn, Adjoa Kittoe (@seulful), and moderated by Ashia Aubourg. Together, they will explore the ways Black food traditions have been documented, celebrated, and sustained across generations.

After the discussion, connect with fellow attendees at a casual networking reception, where food lovers, historians, and industry professionals can exchange ideas, share stories, and continue the conversation.

The voices shaping Black culinary storytelling will be in the building—you won’t want to miss it!

“With its union of practicality and magic, a kitchen is a portal offering extended range and providing unlikely paths out of the ordinary. They are here, these lands I return to, in this kitchen.” 

So begins Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Journeys, the latest offering from travel and food writer Caroline Eden, with the smell, taste, and preparation of food at its heart. A welcoming refuge with its tempting pantry, shelves of books, and inquisitive dog, Caroline Eden's basement Edinburgh kitchen offers her comfort away from the road. Here, she cooks recipes from her travels, reflects on past adventures, and contemplates the kitchen's unique ability to tell human stories. 

Join MOFAD as we celebrate the launch of Cold Kitchen on January 14th. In discussion with Charlotte Druckman, Caroline will discuss the kitchen, travel, and the importance of curiosity and of feeling at home in the world.

Ticket includes access to Flavor: The World to Your Brain from 6 to 7 PM, snacks, and beverages.

Copies of Cold Kitchen can be pre-purchased in a ticket bundle and during the program from our partner bookseller, Kitchen Arts & Letters.

CAROLINE EDEN

is a writer, book critic, and the award-winning author of Red Sands: Reportage and Recipes through Central Asia, from Hinterland to Heartland, a New Yorker Book of the Year; Black Sea: Dispatches and Recipes—Through Darkness and Light; and Samarkand: Recipes and Stories from Central Asia & the Caucasus. She has travelled extensively to countries such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and Bangladesh, documenting her experiences across multiple publications including Financial Times, the Guardian, and the Times Literary Supplement, as well as on BBC Radio 4’s “From Our Own Correspondent.” She lives in Edinburgh.

CHARLOTTE DRUCKMAN

is the creator of the from-scratch anthology Women on Food (Abrams, 2019) and is currently writing a book about soap operas with her friend Mayukh Sen titled Love in the Afternoon... and Evening (W.W. Norton & Co). You can find her writing in the Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine and the Washington Post, among other publications, or via "The Sweethearts," a newsletter devoted to the baked goods of NYC and the people behind them.

KITCHEN ARTS & LETTERS

is a bookstore devoted to food and drink, with titles imported from around the world. They emphasize works on food culture and innovation.

For Betty Liu, the award-winning author of My Shanghai, the key to great Chinese cooking lies not in strict “authentic” recipes and ingredients, but in adaptable techniques. The Chinese Way is an ethos that builds on a set of eight powerful, adaptable cooking techniques that flex with your pantry and the seasons. This collection of inspired recipes will teach you how to unlock your cooking, master heat, and create irresistible flavor combinations. One core technique at a time, Betty shows how to become a better cook—whether you’re stir-frying cauliflower or adding preserved lemon to broccoli for extra zing.

MOFAD is excited to welcome Betty Liu in celebration of her latest book, The Chinese Way: Classic Techniques, Fresh Flavors. She will be joined by award-winning cookbook author and food writer Hetty Lui McKinnon and Kaitlin Leung of The Woks of Life for an unforgettable conversation on the Chinese way of cooking.

This program is 21+. Ticket includes access to Flavor: The World to Your Brain from 6 to 7pm, snacks, and a baijiu cocktail tasting from program sponsor, Ming River.

Copies of The Chinese Way can be pre-purchased in a ticket bundle and during the program from our partner bookseller, Kitchen Arts & Letters.

A limited quantity of Betty’s Chile Crisp Dust by Curio Spice Co. will also be available for purchase during the program.

BEM presents family fun and conversation
in celebration of Lesley Enston's new book:

For author Lesley Enston, cooking has always been a way to connect to her Caribbean roots. Belly Full, with its breadth of stories, recipes, and stunning photography, will leave your stomach and heart more than satisfied and proves that the essential dishes and ingredients of Caribbean cuisine can be seen as an alphabet to unlocking a triumphant culinary language and legacy for all to gather in and share.

Lesley Enston will be in conversation with registered dietician nutritionist, Maya Feller. Lesley will dive into the vibrant world of Caribbean cuisine and the 11 staple ingredients that make it so uniquely flavorful while discussing the overlapping histories of the Caribbean islands through their rich cultures and cuisines.

Small bites curated by Best Dressed Plate.

​This is a family-friendly event and we encourage you bring your little chefs and eaters!

About the Author:

For Lesley Enston, cooking has always been a way to connect to her Caribbean roots. After growing up in Toronto, moving to Brooklyn, and spending a few years in London, she ultimately settled in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Along the way she’s consistently found herself over a stovetop, preparing the dishes her Trini mother first introduced her to, along with all her favorite foods from around the islands—and putting Scotch bonnet in just about everything. Lesley is a seasoned home cook and takes great pleasure in spreading the joy (and heat) of these flavors to her friends and loved ones by way of her famed backyard dinner parties. Better yet, Lesley’s young daughter, Desalin, now plays the role of sous-chef, enjoying the flavors her mother and grandmother cherish so deeply.

​You can find Lesley’s recipes in Bon Appétit, Food52, and the New York Times.

About BEM

​BEM | books & more is a literary destination at the intersection of food and Blackness. Established by two sisters in January 2021 as an online bookstore, BEM is proud to serve as a home for readers, writers, cooks, and eaters passionate about Black cultures in all their diversity. Taking an expansive approach to the nexus of food, literature, and culture, BEM celebrates Black food by bringing works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry for readers of all ages into conversation with cookbooks and culinary studies to explore how what feeds us defines us.

MOFAD is excited to collaborate with Oishii for The Science of Sweet: What it Looks Like When You Have Berries on the Brain. Visit Flavor: The World to Your Brain from August 8th to 18th to see what your brainwaves look like on Oishii Berries at MOFAD’s Brainwave Bloom.

Celebrate this 2 week long activation with us at a special MOFAD @ Night program on Thursday, August 15th, 5PM-9PM featuring vendors such as Lady M cakes, HeavenSake, Kamasu Sushi, and more. Ages 21+ Last entry at 8:45pm.

MOFAD is excited to welcome Carlos Matias in celebration of his new book, Emergency Quarters. This kid-friendly event will feature story time and Oishii strawberries!

Author Carlos Matias and Ezra Jack Keats Award–winning illustrator Gracey Zhang deliver a stunning picture book based on a finalist in the New York Times Metropolitan Diary “Best of the Year,” about a young boy in the city who tries his best to avoid spending his precious quarters on tempting local treats in case of an “emergency.” 

This program is ideal for kids ages 4 to 8 years. All kids must be accompanied by a grown-up. Tickets required for children only (each child ticket allows up to two accompanying adults free of charge).

Copies of Emergency Quarters can be purchased during the program from our partner bookseller, Kitchen Arts & Letters.

MOFAD is excited to collaborate with Oishii for The Science of Sweet: What it Looks Like When You Have Berries on the Brain. Visit Flavor: The World to Your Brain from August 8th to 18th to see what your brainwaves look like on Oishii Berries at MOFAD’s Brainwave Bloom.

Celebrate this 2 week long activation with us at our launch party on Thursday, August 8th, 5PM-9PM featuring vendors such as Lady M cakes, HeavenSake, Kamasu Sushi, and more. Ages 21+ Last entry at 8:45pm.

MOFAD is excited to welcome author Alliah L. Agostini and Chef Taffy Elrod in celebration of their new book, The Juneteenth Cookbook. This kid-friendly event will feature story time, crafting, and red-themed snacks provided by our program partner, Oishii!

A commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States, the Juneteenth holiday has been observed in the Black community for over 150 years. In The Juneteenth Cookbook, Alliah L. Agostini, author of the popular children’s book The Juneteenth Story—which won the 2022 Black Kid Lit Award for Best Historical title—brings the tradition to your home through historically accurate recipes and educational family activities.

With captivating illustrations of 18 quick and easy recipes, follow along with little Alliah and her grandparents as they explore the historical origins of the holiday through food. Alongside all the delicious recipes, you’ll also learn a brief history of barbeque and it’s importance to the Juneteenth holiday and Black culture in America.

This program is ideal for kids ages 5 years and older. All kids must be accompanied by a grown-up. Tickets required for children only (each child ticket allows up to two accompanying adults free of charge).

Join us after hours to experience our interactive exhibition, Flavor: The World to Your Brain. Sip, snack, and socialize with fellow food lovers and the MOFAD team, as well as enjoy a Drag Queen performance! Tickets include admission, bites, and libations! Doors open at 5 pm. Last call at 8:45. Come in drag, get free admission :)

Join us after hours to experience our interactive exhibition, Flavor: The World to Your Brain. Sip, snack, and socialize with fellow food lovers and the MOFAD team at this weekly festivity.

Doors open at 5 pm. Last call at 8:45.

Ages 21 and over.

Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took him from the hidden pockets of his hometown of New York to a tribal longhouse in Borneo, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai to Tanzania’s utter beauty and the stunning desert solitude of Oman’s Empty Quarter—and many places beyond.

In World Travel, a life of experience is collected into an entertaining, practical, fun, and frank travel guide that gives readers an introduction to some of his favorite places—in his own words. Featuring essential advice on how to get there, what to eat, where to stay, and, in some cases, what to avoid, World Travel provides essential context that will help readers further appreciate the reasons why Bourdain found a place enchanting and memorable.

Supplementing Bourdain’s words are a handful of essays by friends, colleagues, and family that tell even deeper stories about a place, including sardonic accounts of traveling with Bourdain by his brother Chris; a guide to Chicago’s best cheap eats by legendary music producer Steve Albini; and more.

MOFAD is excited to welcome co-author and Bourdain’s longtime assistant Laurie Woolever in celebration of the debut of the paperback version of World Travel. She will be joined by Helen Rosner, James Beard Award-winning food writer and staff writer for The New Yorker, for a conversation about the essential (and irreverent) advice for eating and experiencing life around the world.

Doors will open at 6:00 PM to allow ticket holders to tour our current exhibition, Flavor: The World to Your Brain. The program will start promptly at 7:00 PM.

Tickets also include the option to purchase World Travel by Laurie Woolever.

Join MOFAD as we host a special screening of the James Beard Award winning film "Coldwater Kitchen" on the film's New York City tour stop.

For 30 years, soft-spoken chef Jimmy Lee Hill has run a highly regarded culinary training program out of a prison in Coldwater, Mich., offering incarcerated men a renewed sense of purpose through the craft of fine dining — everything from foie gras to lobster. “Coldwater Kitchen” follows Chef Hill and three of his students as they navigate the woes of incarceration and their journeys transitioning back into society.

Through the interwoven and diverse stories of the four key characters, the film subtly addresses some of the most pressing questions of our time, employing food as a prism to tell deeper stories of purpose, resilience, and redemption.

Following the screening, hear from Chef Hill, co-director and former Detroit Free Press restaurant and dining critic, Mark Kurlyandchik, executive producer and MOFAD trustee, Desire Vincent Levy, and Kimberly Buddin, Senior Policy Counsel at the ACLU in a discussion moderated by Nick Turner, president of the Vera Institute of Justice.

Eat, drink, and mingle at MOFAD!

Join fellow food lovers and check out Flavor: The World to Your Brain at this open house. Snack and chat with MOFAD staffers about the exhibition and what else is in store for the museum.

Doors open at 6 pm. Last call at 7:45. Tickets include admission, light bites, and cocktail tastings from Via Carota.

Ages 21 and over.

THE SALVISOUL COOKBOOK is a long-awaited homecoming for the entire Salvadoran diaspora – including here in New York City. Chef and author Karla Tatiana Vasquez’s work is an affirmation of a people’s place in the rich tapestry of the foodways and culture of the United States and bridges the gap between ‘here’ and ‘there’ that many Salvadorans in diaspora have felt for the last several generations.

The being ‘between here and there’ continues to persist: From news of the most recent presidential elections in El Salvador  to immigration to the southern border as a central issue in the US presidential elections this year, THE SALVISOUL COOKBOOK presents a diverse mosaic of both the harrow and beauty of the Salvadoran immigrant experience and a human portrait of what it means to be Salvadoran in the United States today. The book contains 30 first person accounts of Salvadoran women facing the impossible, contending with the American dream, and learning to be here in the US and there in El Salvador all at once, as they fight to preserve both their foodways and the future of their families.

In this collection of eighty recipes, Karla shares her conversations with moms, aunts, grandmothers, and friends to preserve their histories so that they do not go unheard. Here are recipes for Rellenos de Papa from Patricia, who remembers the Los Angeles earthquakes of the 1980s for more reasons than just fear; Flor de Izote con Huevos Revueltos, a favorite of Karla's father; as well as variations on the beloved Salvadoran Pupusa, a thick masa tortilla stuffed with different combinations of pork, cheese, and beans. Though their stories vary, the women have a shared experience of what it was like in El Salvador before the war, and what life was like as Salvadoran women surviving in their new home in the United States.

MOFAD is excited to welcome Karla Tatiana Vasquez in celebration of her new cookbook, THE SALVISOUL COOKBOOK. She will be joined by Jessica Hoppe, Honduran Ecuadorian writer and creator of @NuevaYorka, for a conversation about the flavors of the Salvadoran diaspora and the women who preserve them.

Doors will open at 6:00 PM to allow ticket holders to tour our current exhibition, Flavor: The World to Your Brain. The program will start promptly at 7:00 PM.

Tickets also include the option to purchase THE SALVISOUL COOKBOOK by Karla Tatiana Vasquez from our bookseller partner Kitchen Arts & Letters in New York City.