Hospitality Design - November 2022 - 52

perspectives interview
Donna Battle Pierce
Black America Cooks
Santa Monica, California
Diaries continues to record fi rst-person stories and memories, as well as
ways for family to value recipes and table traditions while passing them
down through generations.
What are you earliest food memories?
Standing on a step stool in my maternal grandmother's Mobile, Alabama
home, watching her prepare our family Parker House-style rolls. Once
Granny recognized my deep passion for family, food, and recipes, she
began teaching me all the details. She took all of this very seriously.
Today, I recall these patient lessons, and I think of her as my 'roll model.'
What dish best represents you?
Seafood gumbo with okra and tomatoes represents my loyalty to our
delicious Creole family traditions and my deep appreciation of our spice
and seasoning diversity. Granny taught us to search for excellent quality
when it comes to any cooking project. With gumbo, this means searching
for fi lé, Gulf shrimp and tiny, tender okra.
From your perspective as a food journalist and editor, how
have Black people been written out of food history?
White privilege has dominated the food history where our voices and
reporting have been ignored, marginalized, suppressed, and silenced by
white-dominated media who are untrained in Black history and culture,
working in companies with limited Black representation.
What is your mission with Black America Cooks?
My mission involves off ering Black history reported through the lens
of a Black woman. Black America Cooks explores and introduces the
histories, cooks, recipes, and African sources ignored and still overlooked
in 2022. Decades ago, my early research about early Black sett lements in
Montana, Colorado, and Minnesota encouraged me to claim the Black
culture contributions in this country. Black America Cooks and Skillet
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November 2022 hospitalitydesign.com
What have you learned from your research?
My cultural ancestors were courageous survivors who found unity and
bonding around the table with New World ingredients blended with
fl avors migrated from the African continent. Dishes included okra, blackeyed
peas, and spicy peppers, as well as soulfully adapted revisions for
macaroni and cheese, red beans and rice, fried chicken, sweet bread,
sweet potato pie, and peach cobbler. As a food journalist and historian,
my research off ers evidence about the blocking and erasure of Black
cultural contributions to many culinary categories. I still receive calls
almost weekly [for corrections], including missing historical references,
att ributions, and images. These have been writt en by white employees
of white-controlled media who oſt en explain they're surprised aſt er my
corrections.
How can the restaurant industry help build equity for Black
chefs?
Continue ending decades of marginalizing and exclusionary practices
Black chefs have faced. The restaurant industry must establish, train, and
maintain a culturally diverse workplace. Showing respect and recognition
is crucial while funding advanced culinary education and workshops.
What does the future of food journalism look like?
Fact checking for reporting is more crucial than ever. As writers
research, we must evaluate all sources and historical references
before moving what could be false forward. Much more cultural
representation is needed to tell the story and question distorted food
history. Journalists must pause and fact check each time we are
presented with historical 'fi rsts' recalling that before emancipation, it
was illegal to teach enslaved people to read or write.
Photo courtesy of DONNA BATTLE PIERCE
http://www.hospitalitydesign.com
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