From a Haunted Plate: Becoming an 18th and 19th Century Black Chef

Throughout Frederick Douglass’ memoir, My Bondage and My Freedom, he vividly details the interactions that the enslaved had with food and cooking. “The dinner of the slaves consisted of a huge piece of ash cake, and a small piece of pork, or two salt herrings. Not having ovens, nor any suitable cooking utensils, the slaves mixed their meal with a little water, to such thickness that a spoon would stand erect in it; and, after the wood had burned away to coals and ashes, they would place the dough between oak leaves and lay it carefully in the ashes, completely covering it; hence, the bread is called ash cake.” Michael Twitty, culinary historian and author of The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South, discusses how foodways of West and Central Africa melded with those of indigenous people and Europeans. The lecture also examines the cooking techniques, cultural transformations, and flavor principles unique to this blend of Western cuisine by early African American chefs.

Reservations required. Please register at http://www.annapolis.org/