African American Holiday Cooking Traditions event is fun and filling

Creating a family cookbook in 1988, facing challenges in capturing oral recipes, including the need to sit with elders to accurately record them.

Sharing the significance of documenting not just recipes, but also the stories behind them.

Discovering a mother’s baked tomato recipe after seeing it listed as “tomato pudding” in a restaurant.

Hearing a personal story about making spoonbread for a family member with a health condition.

The above reflect just a few of the takeaways that nearly two dozen guests consumed on Nov. 1, 2024 during “Kitchen Talk 5: African American Holiday Cooking Traditions.” This fun-filled and enlightening event took place in Richmond, Va.’s historic Jackson Ward Community at the home of Zarina Fazaldin!

Thank you, Zarina!!

Sponsored by the BND Institute of Media and Culture Inc., this fifth iteration of Kitchen Talk provided some awe-inspiring tidbits from our featured speaker Bessida Cauthorne White, an attorney, genealogist, historian and cookbook author. In addition to paying homage to the beloved 1978 cookbook “Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine” by Carole and Norma Jean Darden, Bessida offered a wealth of information about the importance of maintaining our family cooking traditions and our family histories.

Interviewing Bessida was Imani Esparza Pitman, founder and CEO of I Kale Life, a company that creates fresh and flavorful plant-based food for vibrant living. info@ikalelife.com, www.ikalelife.com 

We invite you to enjoy this short video that captures highlights of Kitchen Talk 5! And please feel free to post your comments and thoughts about your holiday cooking traditions as we enter the 2024 holiday

season.

To our friends and sponsors, thank you for your loyal interest and support!

Happy Holidays!

Bonnie

Bonnie Newman Davis

Executive Director

The BND Institute of Media and Culture Inc.

View the conversation between Bessida and Imani here.