Often in America Black people shy away from dealing head-on with the Black experience in lieu of the more comfortable minority experience where we can speak in generalities that seem more socially accessible for the masses. We use frameworks like BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) so that we don’t seem militant or confrontational when trying to get our perspectives across and in the end we are left with a kind of milk toast, watered-down version of the engaged conversation we thought we were going to have.
When I began this project I made a very definite decision that there would be no room for confusion about the focus of this work from our name to the imagery to the bulk of the content. This is not to suggest that there aren’t definite parallels in other communities to the ones this project explores, simply that the purpose of this space is to examine the Black experience in all its complexity and richness. Solidarity with other communities is critical but for the purposes of this space know that the central focus is Black people.
This brings me to the Warhol Mammy and why I use it in this work. First off she’s stunning. The graphic nature of the image and the lack of equivocation about the imagery forces you to confront Blackness and the American gaze on our culture. I also think that it speaks so directly to the relationship Black people have had with America from slavery to now. We are the lifeblood of American life from the farm to the table. From birth to death the black experience has been one of service to this country and the culinary industry has been able to flourish because of our legacy of excellence.
We are less than 2 generations removed from a time when our work was considered a domestic vocation; cut to 1977 when the work got legitimized by the US government, and the cache of the industry is now worth more, and now there are articles written about why more Black chefs aren’t competitive in the culinary arts. To be clear, I think the best and most interesting culinary work should be part of every chef’s vocabulary, its the ignorance to all the amazing, passionate, inspiring, and brilliant black muses we have throughout the history of American cooking that concerns me and was one of the greatest motivations for this project.
I don’t have all the answers, i am not the authority on all things black culinary history, but i am interested in the exploration of our legacy in food that gives me the opportunity to be a working chef irrespective of race.