This Voices In Food story, as told to Amanda Balagur, is from the perspective of Michael W. Twitty, a food writer, culinary historian and historical interpreter. He gained international recognition through his writing, public talks and his food blog, Afroculinaria. He is also the author of The Cooking Gene, which won the 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Book of the Year.
Twitty grew up in Washington D.C. and taught Hebrew school in that metro area for 15 years (he converted to Judaism at age 25). He is writing his second book, Kosher Soul, which focuses on his journey through the world of Jewish food as a Black American Jew, how Black Americans have affected Jewish food, the journey of Blacks and Jews in their own food worlds and how Black Jews have created their own foodways. He has published a
