Black Food is the first book to be printed under Ten Speed Press’ new imprint 4C, which is headed up by chef and author Bryant Terry. And as befits the initial offering of an original enterprise, it’s unlike most any cookbook you’ve experienced before, beginning with the strikingly colorful, block-lettered cover by George McCalman, which feels like it should be ripped off, framed and hung in MoMa, somewhere between the Abstract Expressionists and Pop Art.
Terry has drawn on the talents of more than one hundred chefs, writers, artists and poets to create what he calls a “communal shrine to the shared culinary histories of the African diaspora.” Recipes are interspersed with essays, personal reminiscences, artwork and poems. Some of the recipes come with headnotes substantial enough to constitute mini-essays. The contributions are arranged thematically—with chapters titled “Motherland,” “Migration,” “Land, Liberation & Food Justice” and “Black Women, Food & Power”—and the food featured is drawn from myriad Black food traditions and cultures. There are even suggested playlists to listen to while cooking.
I’m sent a lot of cookbooks and some cookbooks arrive at my home, take their place on the coffee table or bookshelf and stay there, admired but not used. Not “Black Food.” I’ve perhaps used it more than any other cookbook I’ve received in the last six months, making my way through the many recipes I dogeared in my initial perusal of the pages. One clunker recipe can quickly cool a person on a cookbook, but that’s not been a problem in this collection, which in my experience goes from strength to strength.
I began with Somalia-born chef, entrepreneur and author Hawa Hassan’s Somali Lamb Stew, an invitingly warming dish fueled by harissa, the spicy North African pepper paste, and a spice mix combining coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, cardamom pods, whole cloves, turmeric and a smashed-up cinnamon stick, all of which are cooked up together on the stovetop before used. Few stews have as many layers of flavor as this one.
My success with the stew encouraged me to move on to the more ambitious Bajan Fish Cakes by chef, activist and entrepreneur Saran Kirnon. The core of the Barbados dish (Kirnon’s mother is Barbadian) is saltfish, also known as baccala. My local fishmonger had some salted, dried cod that worked beautifully. You have to soak the fish in hot water at least twice before breaking it up and working with it. But the cod is only a small part of the batter, which includes shallots, garlic, scallions and many herbs and spices. These cakes have a kick and are as easy to inhale as potato chips. Helping them go down is a sauce Kirnon’s grandmother called Marry Rose Dressing. It is made of mayonnaise, ketchup, lime, sugar , salt and lots of hot sauce. When I aced these cakes the first time, I was pretty proud. When I did as well the second time, I realized I was just working with a really tight recipe.
Despite these two successes, I approached the Cocoa-Orange Fish by the Georgia author Nicole Taylor with a worried feeling. I thought the combination of cocoa powder, maple syrup and two sliced-up oranges would lead an overbearingly sweet dish. Generally speaking, I’m a savory guy, and am not attracted to sweetish recipes. I rarely order dessert. But the presence of salt, benne seeds and chili flakes in the cocoa rub balanced out the other flavors. It was one of the best catfish dishes I’ve ever had.
Those are three of my favorite food recipes. Eventually, my eyes strayed to the drink section of the book, which Terry grouped in the chapter titled “Leisure and Lifestyle.” (Makes sense.) Believe it or not, the cocktail recipes in any given cookbook are not of immediate interest to me. For one thing, I cook to relax; since cocktails are my main field of study, making the cocktails from a cookbook can feel like work. For another thing, I’ve found the cocktails in most cookbooks to be largely disappointing and often smack of afterthoughts. Most chefs and food writers’ primary interest lies in food.
Happily, that’s not the case with “Black Food,” which boast eight drinks, including recipes by mixologist Shannon Mustipher and Rome-based author Kristina Gill. I recently asked Terry how he put together the drinks selections in his book. The conversation, and three recipes, follow.
When you began work on Black Food, did you always know you wanted cocktails to be part of the book?
Definitely, I’ve included alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in all my books, and I wanted to continue here. I’m always encouraging people to center gatherings around food and drinks, so it is important for me to give readers all the elements for fun get-togethers. Drinks are most often a part of that equation. It was exciting having professional mixologists bring their expertise to Black Food.
How did you go about seeking out cocktail recipes? Did you have specific people in mind to ask for recipes?
In my role as Chef-in-Residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco (MoAD) I curate lots of programs. I’ve gotten to know many awesome Black Bay Area mixologists because I work with them to handle the bar at my events. Through them, I’ve learned about others working in the field nationally, so I had a clear sense of who would be fitting contributors to the book. I also wanted to have a few of my colleagues who aren’t professional mixologists (Like Toni Tipton-Martin and Stephen Satterfield) offer creative drinks.
Where there any specific instructions you gave the contributors as to what sort of drinks you were looking for?
Not really. I didn’t want to be overly proscriptive about their offering. I simply asked them to contribute a drink that was story-driven and/or spoke to their overall approach.
I notice Toni Tipton-Martin's recipe for a Whiskey Sour [recipe below] is apart from the other cocktail recipes, which are gathered in one section. Was there a reason for that placement?
Simply put, I had to place any recipe or drink contribution from Toni in the “Black Women Food and Power” chapter of the book. She embodies all those things. That was also the title of the first program I curated at MoAD in 2015, and she was a panelist along with some brilliant Black scholars, food justice activists, a farmer, and cookbook authors. She is an O.G. in the food space, and she has been such a supportive friend and mentor throughout my career.
Can you talk about the origin and development of the Grape-Tarragon spritzer [recipe below]?
Several years ago, I had a salad that contained grapes and a creamy tarragon-based dressing. I remember being taken aback by how brilliantly those flavors paired. I think I started ideating a drink recipe that weekend. I’ve always wanted to make a drink in which frozen grapes were used in place of ice, and it worked out really beautifully.
What cocktail do you like to make at home? And what cocktail do you like to order when out?
I mostly drink Mezcal neat or on the rocks at home, but I often make my wife the Pink Ghost by Carlos Yturria [recipe below] from the Finding Mezcal book by Ron Cooper. When I’m out, I order Manhattans as a nod to my decade living in NYC.
Whisky Sour
Toni Tipton-Martin
This is a particularly juicy and rather large Whiskey Sour that doubles down showcases the citrus element of the cocktail—lemon juice and orange juice, plus orange zest-infused simple syrup. Tipton-Martin writes in Black Food that the drink honors Fawn Weaver, the entrepreneur who founded Uncle Nearest Whiskey, the Tennessee Whiskey named after Nathan “Uncle Nearest” Green; and Green, the former slave who taught Jack Daniels the charcoal-filtering technique associated with Tennessee Whiskey, and the first known African-American master distiller. The drink will be featured in Tipton-Martin’s upcoming book Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice: Cocktails from Two Centuries of African-American Mixology.
2 ounces whiskey
2 ounces freshly squeeze orange juice
1 ½ ounces lemon juice
½ ounce orange-flavored simple syrup*
1 maraschino cherry for garnish
1 orange slice for garnish
Combine liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice. Shake until chilled. Pour into a Collins glass or a double Old-Fashioned glass. Garnish with cherry and orange slice.
*Recipe for orange-flavored simple syrup: Combine one cup sugar, one cup water, and a tablespoon grated orange zest in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to a simmer until liquid is reduced by half and syrup is thick. Let cool. Syrup will keep in the fridge for a month.
Grape-Tarragon Spritzer
The only other time I’ve seen a drink with frozen grapes in the glass is the well-known and wonderful Vermouth Service at Dante in New York. And this is the first mocktail I’ve seen to employ the method. Between those tasty, frozen orbs and the unusual tarragon syrup, this makes for a beautiful, juicy and pleasing cooler.
Bryant Terry
1 ½ pounds red seedless grapes
3 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup tarragon syrup*
4 cups sparkling water, chilled until almost frozen
Sprigs of tarragon for garnish
Put 8 ounces of grapes on a plate and freeze at least three hours, until completely frozen.
Remove remaining grapes from their stems and put them in a blender. Process until completely broken down. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a pitcher, pressing the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. This should yield about 1 ¼ cups of grape juice. Add lemon juices and tarragon syrup and mix well. Add the sparkling water and stir gently to combine.
*Recipe for tarragon syrup: To make tarragon syrup, combine one cup sugar, ½ cup water and ¼ cup packed minced tarragon in a small saucepan over a low heat. Cook until sugar is dissolved. Let cool and refrigerate until ready to use.
Pink Ghost
Carlos Yturria, The Treasury, San Francisco
Recipe from “Finding Mezcal” by Ron Cooper
1 ½ ounce Del Maguey Vida Mezcal
2 ounces strawberry puree or muddled fresh strawberries
½ ounce lemon juice
½ ounce honey syrup*
1 spritz hemp oil
1 mint spring for garnish
Combine all the ingredients, except the oil and garnish, in a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice. Shake until chilled. Strain into a Collins glass filled with crushed ice. Spray surface of drink with hemp oil and garnish with mint sprig.
*Recipe For honey syrup: Mix three parts honey to one part water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer until honey is dissolved. Let cool. Will keep in the fridge for one month.