The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks

The American South has given us one of our nation's most distinctive and varied regional cuisines. Yet, of the 100,000 recipe collections published over the last two centuries, only 200 or so have ever been properly credited to African American cooks and writers.

Toni Tipton-Martin is a culinary journalist and founding member of the Southern Foodways Alliance. In 2015, Evan Kleiman spoke with her about her groundbreaking book, The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks, which reaches beyond the figure of “Jemima” — a smiling black woman with apron and headscarf — to reveal the culinary legacies of the real men and women pushed aside by history.