美国国家公共电台 NPR This Historian Wants You To Know The Real Story Of Southern Food

This Historian Wants You To Know The Real Story Of Southern Food

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Michael Twitty's a culinary historian and chef who's on a mission to tell you where Southern food really comes from. He wants the slaves who were part of its creation to get credit. And that's why chef Twitty goes to places like Jefferson's Monticello in Virginia and cooks meals that slaves would've eaten. Reporter Erika Beras met him there.

ERIKA BERAS, BYLINE 2: Chef Michael Twitty's standing 3 behind a wooden table at Monticello's Mulberry Row, where hundreds of slaves lived and worked. Dozens of people are watching him.

MICHAEL TWITTY: This is what we're going to cook up today, rabbit.

(LAUGHTER)

TWITTY: Look, it's better than chicken.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Oh, yes it is.

TWITTY: It's better than white-meat chicken. Yup.

BERAS: Twitty is a big guy. He loves to eat. He loves history. And he loves to talk. He's moving back and forth 4 between the table and iron skillets over an open fire. His cooking instructions are not complicated.

TWITTY: Well, guess what? The technique is I season it. I cook it. And it's done.

(LAUGHTER)

BERAS: Today's meal is kitchen-pepper rabbit with hominy and okra soup. He shows us some okra that's past its prime.

TWITTY: I don't care what they tell you on the playground - bad okra.

(LAUGHTER)

BERAS: Michael Twitty recreates the meals slaves would've made on plantations 5 with 18th-century tools and ingredients, some of which we eat today. Think leafy greens and black-eyed peas.

(SOUNDBITE OF COOKING)

TWITTY: Rabbit's doing good. Oh, that's good.

BERAS: At Monticello, his presentation is part cooking show and part history lesson. Like, what would happen if a slave ate the master's food?

TWITTY: You got the present of wearing an iron mask for several weeks until you learned that that food did not belong to you.

BERAS: Michael Twitty is black, Jewish and gay. He writes about all of those things. His mission is to explain where American food traditions come from. He says little is documented about what slaves ate - just a line here and a line there.

TWITTY: There was no sense of their personal stories, no sense of their familial ties, no sense of their personal likes or dislikes. It was just straight-up, you know, a very bland 6, neutral, you know, version of history.

BERAS: He holds up a hot pepper.

TWITTY: If I tell you to put this in some vinegar and put it on the table, how many of you are going to reach for it?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Oh, absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: That's Tabasco.

TWITTY: Exactly.

BERAS: Historian Christa Dierksheide says there's a newfound willingness to talk about slavery at Monticello.

CHRISTA DIERKSHEIDE: It's really been in the past few years that people come here, and they say, wow, what did the slaves eat? Did they grow their own produce? Did Jefferson give them food?

BERAS: People who may not feel comfortable talking about slavery feel OK talking about sweet potatoes and ham hocks.

DIERKSHEIDE: Food is such a great equalizer. And it - you know, everybody has some kind of food tradition in their family. And to talk about what that tradition or culture was among African-Americans, I think, is a way for us to try and understand the lives of enslaved people in a more holistic 7 way.

BERAS: Slaves combined food from Africa with local ingredients. Okra's from Africa. Hominy is from the Americas. At Monticello, because of Jefferson's years in Paris, European cuisine 8 was thrown in the mix.

Macaroni pie or, as we know it, macaroni and cheese was popularized here by his cook, who had gone to Paris with him. Michael Twitty's visit to Monticello touched visitors like Cassandra Rockward O'Saben. She and her son, Isaac, were on a tour when they stumbled upon him.

CASSANDRA ROCKWARD O'SABEN: He made me cry when he looked me in my eyes. And he said, I wanted you to be able to bring your son here. And when you leave here, you both hold your head up because you're a part of the American fabric 9. You're part of American society. You helped to build this country.

ISAAC: I thought he was kind of - he was kind of funny. And yeah, he kind of make me laugh. Yeah. But I was touched too, Mom.

BERAS: That's what Michael Twitty is after. But for him, reviving slave culture is also an act of defiance 10.

TWITTY: I think it's like, you know, the equivalent of, you know, having a, you know - you know, I'm Jewish, so I guess I could say this - you know, having a bar mitzvah at Auschwitz. You know, why not?

BERAS: In other words, he says, why not take the place where oppression was practiced and turn it into an occasion for education and celebration?

For NPR News, I'm Erika Beras.