Plates of Legacy: The Untold Histories of Soul Food

Miss Thelma's (Caribbean Soul Food Restaurant and this year's Soul-Fête partner)

Everything has a time, a place, a story. Here we talk about the kind that is carried on our plates. Food is not just flavor and presentation, but also memories, meaning and identity. Flavor can bring us all the way back to that memorable trip we took. And in the same way that meals can spark nostalgia, they also carry deeper histories. However, many of these culinary histories remain largely overlooked despite rich legacies of creativity, adaptation, and resilience.

Soul-Fête, A Culinary Immersion, STAR annual fundraiser, uncovers the rich histories of Soul Food, a cuisine that derives from the Black experience in America. Through food, our ancestors found meaning in the face of slavery, forging legacies that still delight and comfort us across the nation and the world. How complete would our experiences be, if looking down at our plate, we could tell the rich stories behind them: sharing and treasuring the unparalleled American history of survival and ingenuity against all odds? It is within that legacy that lives Black Cuisine.

As a multi-ethnic nation, America became a hub of culinary discovery, and many of the food traditions we cherish today stem from the influence of diverse non-White cultures. A melting pot, our culture is infused with many influences, including those of Indigenous peoples, Black, Asian, Latino, and many more. In commemorating the 100 years of Black History/Excellence Month this year, we examine two Black culinary traditions that shaped the birth of soul food—dishes that are now staples in many households.” Those enduring and masterful legacies include mac and cheese and sweet potato pie.

Mac and Cheese: An Enduring Taste of Triumph and Belonging

James Hemings: enslaved African American who brought mac and cheese to America.

One dish—introduced by James Hemings, an enslaved cook—would leave a legacy that transcended racial and cultural boundaries: macaroni and cheese. James Hemings lived most of his life under the bondage of Thomas Jefferson in the states. However, as the US ambassador to France in 1784, Jefferson encountered the dish, and was adamant not to leave the country without the ability to replicate it. For this reason, Jefferson brought Hemings with him during his time in France to train under French Chefs, and ensure the treasured dish would travel authentically back to the United States. 

James Hemings learned and worked in French kitchens for several years, mastering Jefferson’s beloved mac and cheese, as well as other French dishes. It is believed that Hemings not only perfected the technique of Mac and Cheese, but served it back to Jefferson with his own unique twist. In 1790, Hemings served the dish to Jefferson, and a group of delegates – including James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. Hemings' work would be described by Jefferson as the “dish that saved the union.”

Tristen Rouse / St. Louis Public Radio: A View of Federal Hall of the City of New York

In Black households today, mac and cheese is seen as a story of resilience and pride. Nationally, the dish is a Hallmark at Thanksgiving tables, as well as a go to comfort food for all. In the South additionally, the dish brings a feeling of belonging and comfort for those who have known its decadent flavors. As part of the tradition of Soul Food, Mac and Cheese is part of the legacy for Southern Hospitality and the sense of warmth and kindness that the region is known for. 

In recent years, the dish has received more attention due to Jefferson’s Monticello Estate making a conscientious decision to highlight Hemming’s Stories alongside that of the estate and other Blacks slaves of Jefferson. In fact, Heming’s achievements, in addition to the roles of other Black slaves who worked alongside Hemings, are increasingly highlighted in juxtaposition to Jefferson’s larger role in establishing the nation. Moreover, while increasingly publicized by historians, the true story of Mac and Cheese is not yet widely known. But now, whether the dish is a go-to food at your job location or a staple in your kitchen, it can also serve as a reminder of the resilience, creativity, and enduring legacy of the ancestors whose culinary brilliance helped shape the American table.

Sweet Potato Pie: Comfort Beyond Pleasure

Tristen Rouse/St. Louise Public Radio: Pastry Chef, Carla Jones at Ol’ Henry’s Restaurant in Berkeley.

A slice of sweet potato pie is like taking a bite of love. The far and wide celebrated dish, sweet potato pie, is intimately connected to a sense of community. Sweet potato pie is historically linked to a sense of comfort among the enslaved, as it provided a sense of connection to home. The dish  was also shared by enslaved Americans during time off from field work, becoming intimately related to a sense of shared community. In more recent years, the dish has also been connected not only to community, healing, and also resistance-making within the Black community. This has been true during both major Civil Rights movements and still today.

Sweet potato pie was created by the Spanish in the 1600s. Once the recipe traveled to America, it was African slaves who perfected and popularized the dish we see today. Sweet potato wasn’t familiar to enslaved people; more familiar to them were their native yams. But it  was common in slave kitchens, where the infamous sweet potato pie was often requested from enslavers. It was in seasoning and re-working the dish in their own way, that American enslaved crafted their version of Sweet Potato Pie, as both comfort and connection to home.

Today, if you’ve ever had a slice of sweet potato pie from an African American kitchen, you tasted love. That’s because sweet potato pie for many, is reminiscent of deep nostalgia for communal situations. As James Beard award-winning author Adrian Miller says in a Southern Kitchen article, “Cooking is an act of love at the most basic level. Somebody is saying they care about your survival. I think sweet potato pie means that to a lot of people.”

Tristen Rouse/St. Louis Public Radio

Additionally, as Michael W Twitty, a James Beard award-winning food historian, says, “When marginalized people adopt a food … [it’s because it] makes you feel a certain way,” alluding to “that feeling during enslavement of: ‘We don’t have a lot of joy in our lives, but this gives us joy.’” Notably, when Blacks s later escaped the violent Jim Crow South during the Great Migration, much of the food culture was lost, but sweet potato pie remained.

One of the most famous sweet potato pies in Black History was that of Georgia Gilmore, a Montgomery native, who during the bus boycott in 1955, began making and selling food, including her sweet potato pies, to support drivers who were taking people to work. 

Sweet potato pie was one of the special requests of Reverent Dr. Martin Luther King following his open heart surgery while  recovering from the first assassination attempt on his life in September 1968 during a book signing event in New York. Coretta, had the pie flown to the Harlem hospital, and according to records, when King’s sister-in-law checked in on him shortly after, he told her: “I’m doing great because I’m sitting here eating your sweet potato pie.”

If you were to take a pool in Black communities,   many would vote for sweet potato over pumpkin pie. “For most, sweet potato pie isn’t just a dessert,” says Pastry Chef David Benton. “It’s a pie with cultural power that connects them to family and the past.” Similarly, though we are not all directly connected through our immediate histories, I challenge all who read this, regardless of cultural legacy, to relish a deep sense of love and togetherness the next time you take a bite into a fresh sweet potato pie.