This week: Celebrating Black cookbook authors releasing titles in 2021 and a look at BEM Books & More; along with recipes, cookbook previews and more.

February 19, 2021 by
 |  One Comment  |  Leave Comment

This week in celebration of Black History Month, I have highlighted upcoming 2021 cookbooks written by Black authors along with some information about a recently launched Black-owned cookbook shop. These are titles that have been on my 2021 cookbook preview post which I continually update because I am obsessed with cookbooks just like you!

Expect more in-depth reviews of many of these titles in the upcoming weeks when review copies will be made available. Also, be sure to check out Hardcover Cook’s vegetarian option this month which features Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes by Bryant Terry along with some great ingredients.

  • Brotha Vegan: Black Men Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society by Omowale Adewale: Black men unpack their lived experience on veganism, fatherhood, politics, sexuality, gender, health, popular culture, spirituality, food, animal advocacy, the environment, and the many ways that veganism is lived and expressed within the Black community in the United States.
  • Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ: Every Day Is a Good Day by Rodney Scott and Lolis Eric Elie is the first cookbook by the Black pitmaster and James Beard Award-winning chef, Rodney Scott. This title celebrates an incredible culinary legacy through his life story, family traditions, and unmatched dedication to his craft.
  • The Twisted Soul Cookbook: Modern Soul Food with Global Flavors by Deborah VanTrece provides invigorating authentic Southern soul cooking with new inspiration. The acclaimed chef elevates classic comfort food into unique, surprising dishes worth celebrating.
  • Afro Vegan: Family Recipes from a British-Nigerian Kitchen by Zoe Alakija introduces the London-based cook, whose rich recipes blend modern British flavors with the rich colors and tastes of her Nigerian upbringing.
  • Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue by Adrian Miller chronicles how Black barbecuers, pitmasters, and restaurateurs helped develop this cornerstone of American foodways and how they are coming into their own today. It’s a smoke-filled story of Black perseverance, culinary innovation, and entrepreneurship.
  • Bress ‘n’ Nyam: Gullah-Geechee Recipes from a Sixth-Generation Farmer by Amy Paige Condon and Matthew Raiford pays homage to this cuisine that nurtured his family for seven generations. In 2010, Raiford’s Nana handed over the deed to the family farm to him and his sister, and Raiford rose to the occasion, nurturing the farm that his great-great-great grandfather, a freed slave, purchased in 1874. In this collection of heritage and updated recipes, he traces a history of community and family brought together by food.
  • Southern Sugar by Belinda Smith-Sullivan delivers traditional favorites and fresh takes on Southern classics.
  • Life Is What You Bake It by Vallery Lomas, the winner of The Great American Baking Show in 2018 which only aired two episodes before ABC pulled the series after allegations of sexual misconduct against one of its judges, Johnny Iuzzini. In September, Vallery debuts her first baking book with 100 recipes including heirloom family recipes from her native Louisiana, time spent in Paris, The Great American Baking Show, and of course sweets and breads inspired by her adopted hometown, New York City.
  • Rice: A Savor the South® Cookbook by Michael W. Twitty delivers fifty-one recipes that deliciously demonstrate how rice stars in Creole, Acadian, soul food, Low Country, and Gulf Coast kitchens, as well as in the kitchens of cooks from around the world who are now at home in the South. Exploring rice’s culinary history and African diasporic identity, Twitty shows how to make the southern classics as well as international dishes
  • Black Food: Stories, Art, and More than 75 Recipes from Across the African Diaspora by Bryant Terry is a stunning and deeply heartfelt tribute to Black culinary ingenuity, Bryant Terry captures the broad and divergent voices of the African Diaspora through the prism of food. From Homeland to Migration, Spirituality to Black Future, each chapter illuminates a part of the Black experience, offering delicious recipes, moving essays, and arresting art from such luminaries as Black Panther Party creative director Emory Douglas and American artist Daniel Minter.
  • Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking by Cheryl Day is a complete book of Southern baking recipes written by the great-grandchild of a former slave who is also one of our country’s most acclaimed bakers
  • One Pot Three Ways (tentative title) by Rachel Ama – no information available yet regarding this title from the author of Rachel Ama’s Vegan Eats: Tasty Plant-Based Recipes for Every Day.
  • New Soul Food Cooking: Fresh Takes on the Most Comforting, Hearty and Irresistible Meals by Scotty Scott captures the very essence of comfort, family and hearty goodness; in no time at all, readers will be recreating these elevated classics and spreading tasty goodness of their own.
  • My Everyday Lagos Kitchen: Nigerian Cooking at Home and in the Diaspora by Yewande Komolafe, acclaimed chef and food writer, celebrates the many cuisines found in Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city, with 75 recipes that mirror her own powerful journey of self-discovery. This is an in-depth exploration of a cuisine that reveals the nuances of regions and peoples, diaspora and return and also tells her own story of gathering the scattered pieces of herself through understanding her home country and food.
  • Orchids and Sweet Tea: Plant-Forward Recipes with Jamaican Flavor & Southern Charm by Shanika Graham-White, recipe developer and food stylist, Graham-White shows us that plant-forward meals can be delicious, bold, and flavorful. We just have to be willing to be creative and treat food like art.

Still of the Davenports from a video on the BEM site.

Last week, Stained Page News shared an interview with Sisters Gabrielle and Danielle Davenport who recently launched BEM Books & More a digital space – for now – which celebrates the cookbooks and food books of the African diaspora. You can follow BEM on Instagram. Be sure to head over to Stained Page News to read the entire article – it is very interesting. For more information on Stained Page News, see our Quick Bites with Paula Forbes.

Other articles of interest:

The last week on the blog

Since our last roundup, Darcie has written these articles:

Darcie’s weekly food news antipasto is shared every Sunday and the tag #foodnews brings up these information-packed posts from the most current to the first one.

This week I have posted:

Other posts:

And as always I continue to update our Kindle deals post so check the blog for new sales.

Jenny and the EYB Team

Recently Indexed Cookbooks

Member Photo of the Week

Grapefruit white chocolate cake from Snacking Cakes: Simple Treats for Anytime Cravings by Yossy Arefi submitted by member Kristjudy

Many of us have been baking from Snacking Cakes this month in our EYB Cookbook Club.

Have you uploaded any of your own photos yet? Learn more! Please remember to update your profile with your Instagram name if you would like to be tagged in any photos that we share!

Featured Online Recipe

The Recipe Critic’s creamy garlic pork Marsala from Food52

EYBDigital Previews

Recently we uploaded our 921st EYBDigital Preview where a selection of full sample pages is available for the following cookbooks.

Learn more about EYBDigital Previews.

Note: To learn why you cannot add all EYBDigital Preview recipes to your Bookshelf, please read this Help page.

Cookbook Giveaways
Click on the Bold Blue Link Below to Enter

  • Enter our US giveaway to win one of two copies of Aegean: Recipes from the Mountains to the Sea by Marianna Leivaditaki. Contest expires February 27th, 2021.
  • Enter our worldwide giveaway (2 copies US members provided by Interlink Publishing; 2 copies UK/AU members provided by Murdoch Books; and one additional copy provided by Eat Your Books worldwide) of Parwana: Recipes and Stories from an Afghan Kitchen by Durkhanai, Farida, and with assistance from Fatima Ayubi. Contest expires March 1st, 2021.

*Publishers thank us for our continued patience while awaiting the arrival of prizes as warehouses are not operating at full capacity yet and it appears things will only get slower as the winter season takes hold. The cookbook giveaway roundup shares all current giveaways.

View Past Weekly Roundups

Category: Recipes
Tags:

Post a comment

One Comment

  • Mrs. L  on  February 19, 2021

    So many great cookbooks I would have not known of by black authors. Thank you so much for bringing these to my attention! Can’t wait to get some of them and cook some great dishes.

Seen anything interesting? Let us know & we'll share it!

Categories

Archives