Sweet Home Cafe Cookbook: A Celebration of African American Cooking

(Hardback)

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A celebration of African American cooking with 109 recipes from the National Museum of African American History and Culture's Sweet Home Cafe. Since the 2016 opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, its Sweet Home Cafe has become a destination in its own right. Showcasing African American contributions to American cuisine, the cafe offers favorite dishes made with locally sourced ingredients, adding modern flavors and contemporary twists on classics. Now both readers and home cooks can partake of the cafe's bounty- drawing upon traditions of family and fellowship strengthened by shared meals, Sweet Home Cafe Cookbook celebrates African American cooking through recipes served by the cafe itself and dishes inspired by foods from African American culture. With 109 recipes, the sumptuous Sweet Home Cafe Cookbook takes readers on a deliciously unique journey. Presented here are the salads, sides, soups, snacks, sauces, main dishes, breads, and sweets that emerged in America as African, Caribbean, and European influences blended together. Featured recipes include Pea Tendril Salad, Fried Green Tomatoes, Hoppin' John, Senegalaise Peanut Soup, Maryland Crab Cakes, Jamaican Grilled Jerk Chicken, Shrimp & Grits, Fried Chicken and Waffles, Pan Roasted Rainbow Trout, Hickory Smoked Pork Shoulder, Chow Chow, Banana Pudding, Chocolate Chess Pie, and many others. More than a collection of inviting recipes, this book illustrates the pivotal--and often overlooked--role that African Americans have played in creating and re-creating American foodways. Offering a deliciously new perspective on African American food and culinary culture, Sweet Home Cafe Cookbook is an absolute must-have.

Reviews

A James Beard Foundation Book Award nominee for best American cookbook

One of Food & Wine's Best Cookbooks

One of Booklist's Top 10 Food Books

One of Essence's Picks

One of the best holiday gift books, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and San Antonio Express-News

Now recipes from the cafe and from black home and professional cooks, mostly traditional fare, have been collected in a cookbook. Keepers like mixed greens with baby turnips, biscuits, a somewhat-upmarket pimento cheese, fried croaker, and macaroni and cheese thats almost as easy as a packaged mix, are interspersed with history and sidebars about ingredients like okra, rice and peanuts. New York Times

More than just a collection of recipes, Sweet Home Caf Cookbook is a fascinating, thoughtful look at African American foodways, and how American food wouldnt be nearly as delicious and complex without the many contributions of African American cooks. Southern Living

A love letter to African-American history, culture, and cuisine DCist

The recipes will open a cooks eyes to the diversity and richness of African-American cuisine. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Part of the phenomenal success and overflowing crowds at the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of African American History has been the museum's Sweet Home Caf, a venue for visitors from all backgrounds to share food together. The restaurants menu includes all sorts of tasty dishes that connect both directly and indirectly with African-American culinary history. Expected soul food standards such as collards and potlikker, fried chicken, and sweet potato pie appear in this beautifully illustrated cookbook, and there are also supplemental ideas from other new world African traditions such as Jamaicas curried goat, Trinidads Afro-Indian Trini doubles, and Guyanese oxtail pepper pot. African-American dishes born outside Dixie include New York City restaurateur Thomas Downings celebrated oyster pan roast and frontier cowboys son-of-gun stew. Befitting a cookbook produced by a museum, every recipe is carefully categorized by geographic origins, and a paragraph illuminates how each dish fits specifically within African-American cuisines diverse history and origins. Booklist, starred review

Lukas, supervising chef of the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History and Cultures caf, and Harris (The Marthas Vineyard Table) present the museum cafs recipes in this fascinating cookbook. In these refined caf dishes, Lukas and Harris deliver a delicious food history lesson for home cooks. Publishers Weekly

Named for the cafe at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, this cookbook collects classic and contemporary dishes inspired by historically African American foods. Chapter introductions and headnotes from culinary historian Jessica B. Harris (High on the Hog) provide social and historical context to 109 regional recipes such as potato salad, Louis Armstrongs red beans & rice, fried croaker with corn hush puppies, and banana pudding. There are also contributions from the cafes supervising chef Albert Lukas and executive chef Jerome Grant. Collectively, they showcase the influence of African American cooking on the nations foodways. Library Journal

The recipes and stories in Sweet Home Caf Cookbook are a wonderful and delicious way to bring history to life. This is a handbook for the culture that shaped American cuisinecook it, treasure it, and celebrate it at your own table. Carla Hall, Chef, Author

Sweet Home Caf Cookbook is a heartwarming guided tour through African American culinary history that sparkles with all the fervor, dedication, and innovation of the Caf itself. It is a new necessary favorite for my kitchen. Michael W. Twitty, author of The Cooking Gene

This book is a celebration ofand an education inthe cuisine that helped forge the culture of this country. Delving into the history of dishes rooted in Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe, Sweet Home Caf Cookbook sheds much-needed light on the unique and critical role African Americans played in shaping the way we eat today. Marcus Samuelsson, chef and co-owner of Red Rooster Harlem

Author Bio

Among the many treasures at the NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE, which opened in September 2016, is its Sweet Home Cafe. Developed in thoughtful collaboration with Restaurant Associates, which focuses on creating extraordinary dining experiences in cultural institutions, the cafe showcases the rich culture and history of the African American people with traditional, authentic offerings as well as up-to-date dishes. JESSICA B. HARRIS is an award-winning culinary historian, author, and journalist and served as advisor to the museum as it developed the cafe. She is the author of twelve cookbooks, including High on the Hog- A Culinary Journey from Africa to America. Supervising Chef ALBERT LUKAS crafted the innovative and highly acclaimed cafe menu, which ties together food history, heritage ingredient sourcing, and modern tastes. Executive Chef JEROME GRANT oversees the cafe and develops inventive special meals for holiday and seasonal celebrations.