Michael W. Twitty on Honoring His Ancestors Through Food

For the James Beard Award–winning writer and culinary historian Michael W. Twitty, kitchens provide a multitude of significant purposes that stretch far into the past and carry through to the present. Beyond being places where people cook, share, and eat food, they also serve as vital spaces in which to gather in community, to grieve and process trauma, to teach and learn, to dance, to heal, and to experience Black love and joy. Twitty’s multilayered cooking draws on his family roots, his personal history, and his deep culinary knowledge of the American South. His latest title, the cookbook Recipes From the American South (Phaidon), brings his skill as a home cook and historically informed recipe-maker to the fore, allowing ingredients and dishes to transform into cultural and temporal touchpoints. 

On this episode of Time Sensitive, Twitty reflects on what researching and uncovering his ancestry has taught him about Southern cooking and himself, and shares why, for him, food functions as a tangible form of cultural reclamation and emotional healing.

Special thanks to our Season 12 presenting sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.

Show notes:

Michael W. Twitty

[7:43] Saidiya Hartman

[8:43] Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and Mules and Men (1935) by Zora Neale Hurston

[9:42] Gonze Lee Twitty

[16:50] Brer Rabbit 

[14:33] National Museum of African American History and Culture

[19:42] “Amazing Grace”

[29:22] Gullah Geechee

[54:04] Recipes From the American South (2025)

[54:56] Southern Discomfort Tour

[1:03:44] Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew (2023)

[1:03:44] Rice: A Savor the South Cookbook (2021)

[1:03:44] The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South (2018)

[1:07:52] Ryan Coogler

[1:19:17] James Hemings

[1:19:17] Edith Fossett and Fanny Hern

[1:19:17] Ursula Granger

[1:19:31] Gage & Tollner

[1:19:31] John Birdsall

[1:19:31] Tennessee Williams

[1:19:31] Truman Capote