Core Principals

When I initiated Black Culinary History, I was navigating a daunting career crisis that left me feeling adrift, yearning for a reminder of my purpose. In this vulnerable time, I reached out to about 40 inspiring Black food creators, sharing the tumult of my chef journey while inviting them into a collective conversation about our shared experiences. This outreach became a manifesto—a beacon illuminating my path forward. All these years later, its message continues to resonate deeply with me, and fidelity to that initial motivation to build a true Black culinary community drives the growth of this project.

I urge you to look beyond the naieve earnestness of the original outreach and embrace the essence of our mission: to create a welcoming and accessible launchpad for anyone who wants to delve into the vibrant tapestry of Black culinary heritage. Together, we can weave a narrative that honors our past, celebrates our present, and builds our future in the culinary arts. This community thrives on the belief that every voice adds a valuable thread to our collective story, transforming individual experiences into a unified celebration of culture, history, and food is a huge undertaking, but is the core ambition that drives this work.

December 28, 2008 -

Has it ever occurred to you that there really isn’t a soulful or substantive analysis of Black people in the culinary world? While I am the first to be proud of our inclusion in this field as a given and the fact that race has little to do with our ability as Black people to bring culinary fire wherever and however we like, it occurs to me that it’s dangerous not to look back and pay homage to the fact that it hasn’t always been the case.

I feel a sense of responsibility as a Black culinary professional, being blessed with the ability to freely and profitably lay down my mark on this industry to in some way put something meaningful back out into the culinary universe for my little sisters and brothers behind me to be inspired by. My idea is pretty simple: we all have a verbal family history that has been passed down through great meals and stories from parents and grandparents. I’m sure you’ve felt as starved for pockets of inspiration as I have, so you’ve looked to whatever information you could find. We have visionaries such as chefs Leah Chase, Jefferson Evans, and Edna Lewis, but what I’m talking about is a reference point for all these things -persoanl and professional- in a clear and concise format, as a starting point for grounding our colective work.

What I want to know is your background, culinary points of view, and where you draw inspiration from. I want to be voracious about researching our culinary history and sharing my findings with you all. I want to meet, network, and fellowship with all my brothers and sisters in food, and I want to be the muse for the generation of Black chefs coming behind me. I want this project to be a multi-layered confection of all these things and I know that to achieve any of this the starting point is you. I hope I'm on the right track and that I'm not alone in this vision. I hope you'll share information with me and keep current with the information I put out because again this project is for all of us!

- Therese Nelson