MasterClass - Michael Twitty Teaches Tracing Your Roots Through Food

Through years of unearthing his African American heritage, bestselling author of “The Cooking Gene” Michael W. Twitty discovered undeniable ties between his ancestors’ past and his own palate. Now he’s teaching how you can get a taste of your family history through food. Explore the migrations that informed the ingredients in your kitchen—then re-create the dishes that helped shape who you are.

After years of researching and documenting his ancestry, Michael W. Twitty launched “Afroculinaria,” a culinary history blog that explores African American foodways and their influences on U.S. Southern food culture. The next year, he began working on his James Beard Award–winning book, “The Cooking Gene”—released in 2017. The bestseller further traces his ancestry through food, from Africa to America, while dissecting topics of culture, race, and slavery in African American history.

Now he continues to share how exploring history through cuisine can help us all connect with our ancestors and come to terms with injustices of the past.

Lessons in this online class include:

• Ancestral Foodways: Keeping Recipes Alive
• Tracing Ancestral ‘Foodsteps’
• Case Study: The Cooking Gene
• Foodways of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
• Food Culture of the Antebellum South
• The Birth of Soul Food
• Taking Inspiration From Master Chefs
• Africa’s Culinary Contributions
• The Mosaic of Genealogy
• Deciphering Your DNA Story
• Food Storytelling
• Food Blogging With Purpose
• Facing Your Pain
• Culinary Justice
• Okra, Corn, and Tomato Stew
• Accara: Black-Eyed Pea Fritters
• Our Narratives Connect Us