It’s been a wild ride these last few weeks. Leaving the fires of the west coast for the Midwest has been full of ups and downs. The weight of the George Floyd memorial and the Breonna Taylor memorial left me shaken. The injustices that have been endured by our black, brown and indigenous brothers and sisters for centuries makes me wonder why they haven’t burned it all down. Taking a knee, peaceful protests, a blocked highway, some smashed windows seem little in proportion to what has been and continues to be lived with day in and day out.

As the events have unfolded during a global pandemic on top of it all I heard an interview with Toni Tipton-Martin, the James Beard award winning author. She is the author of The Jemima Code: Two Centuries off African American Cookbooks and Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking (linked for purchase from my favorite Tucson bookstore Antigone Books). I had to get my hands on them both. It turns out that was not so easy. Sold out online. I went from city to city in local small bookstores hoping I would find them somewhere. Sold out everywhere. After months I was finally able to get my hands on them. What richness between the covers.

I discovered the voices of people who’s recipes had been stolen. Blood, sweat, and tears attributed to mostly white dudes instead of the black folks that actually created them. These people have influenced almost every area of culinary riches that we take for granted every day. Simple biscuits, cocktails drank with pinkies out (Mint Juleps anyone), Braised Lamb Shanks with Peanut Sauce, Bread Pudding, the list goes on and on. Tipton-Martin will not let us settle for the caricature of black cooking or the reduction to collard greens and fried chicken. Those recipes are there but to limit the influence of the black chef is a disservice to us all.

As a white lesbian woman of privilege it is my responsibility to understand what has been done and continues. It is so easy to reap the rewards of the work of others from music, to food, clothing and entertainment and see how we love what bipoc people bring but continue to take and devalue them as people.

So this week as I cook a delicious Corn and Potato Chowder with Crab I will honor these chefs. I will remember and I will #SayTheirNames.