Explore some of the incredible stories of African Americans who have shaped our country’s culinary identity.

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African American contributions to our nation’s culinary culture are foundational and ongoing. For over 400 years, African Americans have inspired our country’s food through their skill, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Black foodways have shaped much of what we farm, what we cook, what we drink, and where we eat.

At African/American: Making the Nation’s Table, we invited visitors to walk the fields, see the kitchens, and meet the people who show that African American food is American food. The exhibition ran from February 22 - July 17, 2022 at Aliko Dangote Hall at the The Africa Center in New York City.

 

Image Credit: The New Orleans Advocate / Max Becherer

 

Highlights

  • The Legacy Quilt

    The Legacy Quilt honors the countless African American food and drink producers who have laid the foundation for American cuisine. Standing at 14 feet tall and nearly 30 feet wide, this awe-inspiring object makes a powerful point: there are countless stories that deserve recognition. Share the story of your own African American culinary hero as part of the Legacy Quilt Project.

  • Virtual Reality Theater

    Take an immersive journey to explore the stories of African American farmer and herbalist Matthew Raiford and Jovan Sage at Gilliard Farms, and pitmasters Deborah and Mary Jones at Jones Bar-B-Q. Watch now on YouTube, or click here to watch on your Oculus device!

  • Mapping the Nation's Table

    MOFAD is mapping Black food and drink businesses across the country as part of African/American: Making the Nation's Table. Explore legacy businesses that have been in operation for 50 years or longer and are still serving communities today through Mapping the Nation’s Table.

  • Ebony Test Kitchen

    The Ebony Magazine Test Kitchen is a psychedelic, 1970s state-of-the-art kitchen. In 2018, Landmarks Illinois (LI) rescued the Ebony Test Kitchen from demolition and awarded MOFAD’s proposal to refurbish and restore the Test Kitchen for display in our exhibition. MOFAD was honored to be able to pay tribute to this historic publication, and to open the doors of the Kitchen to visitors publicly for the first time. The Test Kitchen will now have a new home at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

    Read more.

  • Shoebox Lunch Tasting

    African/American concludes with a tasting inspired by the Shoebox Lunch with recipes contributed by top African American chefs including Carla Hall, Chris Scott, Adrienne Cheatham, Tanya Holland, and Kwame Onwuachi.

    Image Credit: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library

 Dr. Jessica B. Harris, Lead Curator

Dr. Harris is widely considered the world’s preeminent expert on the foods of the African Diaspora. Dr. Harris is the author of 12 critically acclaimed books and was recently inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Hall of Fame.

In 2012, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture engaged Dr. Harris to conceptualize and curate the museum’s acclaimed cafeteria.

Following a 50-year teaching career at CUNY Queens College, and building on over four decades of work as an acclaimed journalist, African/American is a natural extension of Dr. Harris’s life work. As Dr. Scott Barton writes, “Dr. Jessica B. Harris has championed the heretofore invisible African American / African culinarians, rendering them visible and in plain sight.”

Curatorial Team

Catherine Piccoli, Curatorial Director

Jean Nihoul, Curator and Culinary Operations Manager

Alexis Fleming, Curatorial Associate

Myriah Towner, Curatorial Associate

Mandira Ghai, Research Associate

Shuan Carmichael-Ramos, Exhibitions Manager

 

Exhibition Advisors

The African/American advisory committee comprises some of the country’s most distinguished scholars, writers, chefs, and food and drink producers:

 

Scott Barton, food historian and professor

Gustave Blache III, artist and visual biographer of Leah Chase

Adrienne Cheatham, chef and star of Top Chef

BJ Dennis, chef and cultural activist

Charla Draper, former food editor of Ebony and Southern Living magazines

Carla Hall, chef, author, and television personality

Tanya Holland, author and chef/owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen

Tonya Hopkins, co-founder of James Hemings Society

Charlotte Lyons, former food editor of Ebony

André Mack, owner of Maison Noir wines

Adrian Miller, James Beard Award-winning author of Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine

Thérèse Nelson, founder of Black Culinary History

Garrett Oliver, Brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery

Kwame Onwuachi, James Beard Award-winning chef

Questlove, co-founder of The Roots, author, and entrepreneur

Matthew Raiford, chef and farmer at Gilliard Farms

Glenn Roberts, founder of Anson Mills and president of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation

Jovan Sage, the Alchemist behind Sage's Larder

Marcus Samuelsson, television personality and restaurateur

Chris Scott, chef and star of Top Chef

Michael Skolnik, board member of the Trayvon Martin Foundation

Alexander Smalls, James Beard Award-winning co-author of Between Harlem and Heaven

Omar Tate, creator of the Honeysuckle dinner series

Nicole Taylor, author of the Up South Cookbook

Pierre Thiam, chef, educator, and author of Senegal

Toni Tipton-Martin, author of The Jemima Code and Jubilee

Michael Twitty, James Beard Award-winning author of The Cooking Gene

Colleen Vincent, Director of Culinary Community Initiatives at the James Beard Foundation

Jarobi White, founding member of A Tribe Called Quest

Psyche Williams-Forson, author of Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, & Power