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Book Description
The African-American way with food combines the improvisational
techniques that gave the world jazz with the culinary techniques
and piquant tastes of the African continent.
From
Hoppin' John to creamy Sweet Potato Pie, from Benne Seed Wafers
to the Gospel Bird, African-American cooking recalls its history
and speaks eloquently to the richness and diversity of black
culture. In The Welcome Table, Jessica Harris presents African-American
food at its finest: over 200 recipes, both traditional and
contemporary, combined with historical detail and personal
interviews and illustrated with beautiful photographs.
From Library
Journal
Harris is the author of a number of good cookbooks, including
Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons: Africa's Gifts to New World Cooking
(LJ 5/15/89), in some ways the forerunner of this one. Here
she presents African American recipes of all sorts, from slave
cooking, the source of many classic Southern dishes, to the
family favorites she grew up with to her own sophisticated reinterpretations
or inventions. Headnotes are readable and informative, providing
culinary and cultural background and more; reminiscences from
different cooks (and some noncooks) open the various chapters.
Angela Medearis's The African-American Kitchen (LJ 8/84) offers
a similar, somewhat more personal look at this culinary tradition,
but Harris's thoroughly researched book is the essential purchase.
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