#the jemima code

[themanhattanfoodproject]

Shrimp and tomato salad, reinterpreted from a recipe from Mammy’s Cookbook as found in The Jemima Code. 

[utexaspress]

A Taste for Truth this Black History Month

"The Jemima Code is no ordinary book. It’s a heaping helping, a long overdue acknowledgment of African-Americans who have toiled in this field since the country’s beginnings. With eloquence and urgency, Tipton-Martin makes the case that without the people of the African diaspora not only would America’s food be different, so would its culinary conversation." —The New York Times Book Review “[The Jemima Code is] that rare coffee table book that serves up important history and compelling imagery in digestible, bite-size chunks that still stick to your ribs.” —Michel Martin, NPR's Best Books of 2015 Subscribe to our podcast to hear about Toni Tipton-Martin's book The Jemima Code, one of NPR's Best Books of 2015 : http://apple.co/1MTgzCN

[utexaspress]

Culinary journalist and activist Toni Tipton-Martin discusses her new book, offering listeners insight into what the "Jemima Code” actually is and the harmful stereotype that it has perpetuated over time.

This moving conversation wrestles with two centuries of deeply ingrained racial tension born out of Southern plantation kitchens and the journey Toni Tipton-Martin embarked upon when she started one of the world’s largest private collections of African American cookbooks.

Catch Toni Tipton-Martin on @cbs Sunday Morning this weekend!

[mediaconsortium-blog]

The recipes of black slaves, passed down orally, since they were denied the ability to write, became cookbooks authored by white housewives in the 19th century. The cooking of 20th century blacks was published in “dignified” but humble volumes, compared to the polished Southern cuisine cookbooks put out by major publishers. Tipton-Martin spent a decade collecting 300 obscure books of recipes and rules of etiquette written by black cooks, then culled and compiled them into The Jemima Code. 

“Throughout the twentieth century,” she writes, “the Aunt Jemima advertising trademark and the mythical mammy figure in southern literature provided a shorthand translation for a subtle message that went something like this: ‘If slaves can cook, you can too.’ … It is true that black women did much of the cooking in early American kitchens. It is also true that they did so with the art and aptitude of today’s trained professionals, transmitting their craft orally.” 

via @texasobserver

[nprbooks]

For some, Aunt Jemima evokes feelings of anger over a racial stereotype of a black woman with no apparent life of her own. But just who were the real Aunt Jemimas -- those black cooks and chefs whose craft and skill did so much to define American cuisine?

"Their cookbooks, their efforts, their accomplishments, their love of the kitchen, their joy, their intelligence — all of that disappeared," food writer Toni Tipton-Martin tells NPR. To find those missing men and women, Tipton-Martin turned to her collection of around 300 African-American cookbooks, dating back almost 200 years. Her new book is The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks.

Beyond 'Aunt Jemima': A Taste Of African-American Culinary Heritage

[afroeditions]

Listen: Beyond 'Aunt Jemima': A Taste Of African-American Culinary Heritage

The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks

http://www.npr.org/player/embed/449197640/449510531

[kerathink]

At Texas Book Festival, Design And Preservation Give Print A Future

"Think" just wrapped a week of broadcasting in Austin with two Texas Book Festival authors who relish the hard copy's preciousness. Author Zachary Dodson

The intersection of sci-fi, historical fiction and design; and how 200 years of cookbooks illuminate the black experience in America: two special episodes of “Think” featuring Texas Book Festival authors Zachary Dodson and Toni Tipton-Martin. 

[utexaspress]

Toni Tipton-Martin’s The Jemima Code has Arrived!

Check out what the Smithsonian, Mother Jones, and the washingtonpost have to say about it:

What 200 Years of African-American Cookbooks Reveal About How We Stereotype Food

The Secret History of Black Chefs in America

Black recipes matter, too: Why I wanted to break the Jemima code

Oh, and Michelle Obama has invited author Toni Tipton-Martin to the whitehouse TWICE. No big deal.