Black Chefs You Should Know: Carla Hall

In addition to the greats like Julia Child or Marco Pierre White, there are equally prolific black icons like Patrick Clark, Abby Fisher or Edna Lewis who reshaped the culinary landscape and defined regional cuisines. This series will share their literary works as well as add their names to larger conversations surrounding cuisine and who or what is its original author.

“These books are your start to defining for yourself how our history applies to your life and work, what your contributions to the present will be, and what you’ll do to add to what the future looks like.” Therese Nelson

While many artifacts and oral stories were lost in transition or forgotten through generations, food helps us recall stories of our culture. Carla Hall's Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration ensure that one less story will be forgotten. Carla Hall is a classically trained chef, tv personality and humanitarian who is actively involved in service charities and not for profit organizations. Through several books, she discussed the impact representation and identity on her cooking and trajectory in the industry. Carla has also written: Carla’s Comfort Food: Favorite Dishes from Around the World,  Cooking with Love: Comfort Food That Hugs You and in 2021 a children’s book, Carla and the Christmas Cornbread. 

Hall’s most recent cookbook depicts vivid imagery of home as a place of spiritual awakening and grounding. The difference between southern food and soul food is highly disputed. She explains it’s Black Cooks that make all the difference, “it is like the difference between a hymn and spiritual. Both sound beautiful and express the same message, but the spiritual’s got a groove.” We have it in our soul and I love how she captures what makes us unique and takes pride in her heritage. Her authenticity and desire for food to be simple originally interested me in her work. While I understand the desire for some to combine everything but the kitchen sink on a plate, I’d rather food make sense and make people feel good. The logic behind her vegetable forward recipes are both practical as well as economical recipes. She’s not just another celebrity making claims that we should all eat organically without taking into consideration peoples pocketbooks. She uses common kitchen staples and encourages innovation to create celebratory and comforting meals that “don’t make you feel like you’re going to die afterwards.” Hall acknowledges the benefits of a veggie centric lifestyle in partnership with the importance of locally raised livestock. We were cooking “Farm to Table” long before it became a catchy buzz term and her recipes influenced by her grandmother are a testament to those deep roots in history and in heritage. While I wish she created an entire section for pickles, my latest obsession, I had never heard of pickling Delicata Squash! It’s such an exciting recipe that I will definitely use to enjoy squash all year round.

From Carla Hall's Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration: “Like a lot of African Americans who got to go to culinary school, I couldn't run fast enough from soul food as soon as I was taught European dishes. Early in my career, I was like, “Now I’m educated and I don’t need to do soul food”...I stopped frying chicken and started stewing it in red wine.” She further explains her internal battle with her food identity in a way that many can relate. I too have had those same fears of possibly being typecast or pigeonholed as a chef who can only cook x cuisine and felt the need to pursue European cooking.  Her grandmother was the one to provide generation wisdom on happiness, she said “it's your job to be happy, not rich. If you do that,then everything else will follow.” Her outlook is one that would have saved me  from comparing myself with others. Carla states that this book is more than just a collection of recipes. “You may not see many African-Americans as executive chefs of Michelin-starred restaurants, topping lists, or winning the big awards. Not yet. You don’t see us, but we’re here.” 

I have no idea who said it first but I agree, we have to start giving flowers to people while they’re still here. I see her and the fabulous work she's doing and y’all should too!

Shirley Sherrod, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Thérèse Nelson and Me

Federal Confirmation Hearing. Photo: Kevin Lamarque/AFP/Getty Images

The historic nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson should be cause for great celebration. However, in the same breath, I am reminded of how far we have to go in the battle for racial equality and representation. Perhaps more importantly, how can we thrive within these complex institutions, and what effect will appointing this brilliant Black woman to the highest court in our country have on food policy?

Judge Jackson’s nomination makes me think of Shirley Sherrod, former Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the USDA. Mrs. Sherrod is another example of an exemplary woman to break ground and blaze trails as a first in her position. While her background as a farmer, activist, and dedicated public servant made her uniquely qualified to affect change, she was forced to resign over a falsified video supposedly showing her discriminating against a white farmer. Since then she was vindicated, offered an apology, her job back, and almost a decade later she was recently appointed to USDA Equity Commission.

When I look at her background in community development, her commitment to Black farmers is palpable. She decided to stay in the rural South and work toward change after overcoming what would have crushed many. It’s worth noting because “success” often looks differently; we tend to move away from disenfranchised communities and start anew in metropolitan cities. While there is nothing inherently wrong with moving to a new region, Shirley Sherrod is central in any conversation surrounding food or land sovereignty, she shows us all the type of impact that is possible when we make the bold choice to stay.

Although firsts in completely different fields, each and every achievement for one acts as a building block for which the next person or generation can stand upon. Furthermore, if confirmed, Judge Jackson will hear cases that have the ability to reshape the landscape of our food system. As I forge ahead on my own career path blending food policy and education, women like Shirley Sherrod and Judge Jackson inform and inspire. It must be stated that a lack of representation in the legal, healthcare, or food system does not equate to a lack of qualified and competent black professionals, perhaps just a lack of opportunity which these two women show us is an ever-evolving truth.

Thérèse Nelson started Black Culinary History in 2008 to preserve and pay homage to our collective Black culinary heritage and to directly challenge the pervasive and misguided narratives that exclude media coverage of Black chefs. I’m thankful for her facilitating my birth into the world of food writing. It’s one that often seemed abstract and ethereal in nature. While I still vacillate between pursuing a career as a chef or transitioning into academia or even law, I know my passion has a place and will guide me in the vast, interdisciplinary world of food access and sustainability.

Up until now, I have been on the periphery and now she has given me a seat at the table where we feast on cuisines old and new, ideas, and most importantly a shared commitment to cultivating our expansive communities. Through our collaboration, I aspire to further her vision and discover my story along the way. 
I invite you all to come along on this journey with me! You can expect weekly posts featuring an array of content centered on Black joy. A little bit of everything, some historical pieces, content highlighting rising Chefs, monthly book reviews, and lots of food!

Let me introduce you to Carolyn Hosannah

Black Culinary History has been a small project with specialized support from experts like the brilliant Vonnie Williams and Kwasi Amankona who revamped the site last year and Melissa Danielle who helps moderate our Facebook group. This year we’re growing in areas like this blog and a more active Instagram feed and I want to introduce you to a huge part of this growth, Carolyn Hosannah.

I met Carolyn last year working with Dr. Jessica B. Harris developing a culinary African diaspora curriculum for the CIA (get into that as well, it was pretty darn dope). Carolyn was on our advisory committee asking amazing questions on behalf of the students and advocating for the areas of interest she knew her peers would be most curious about. Her questions, leadership, and insight through the planning process and over the course of the series were impressive, to say the least.

Her ambitions are focused on food policy. Being prepared, across disciplines, to understand and advocate for policy change that will make a better, more equitable food system. She has degrees in culinary arts, food studies and has her eye on law school to work in the footsteps of legends like Shirley Sherrod (which she’ll tell you more about in her first blog post), but in the meantime, she is stretching her writing and research muscles in service of this blog.

I hope you’re as charmed and inspired by Carolyn as you get to know her through her writing as I am. Please go on over to her Instagram page and give her a follow, keep checking our Instagram feed and this blog for all the wonderful stories coming your way, and please comment, share, and generally engage with the ideas we’re about to share.