When I was very young, I came here. And it was really an impactful moment for me because I got to see these interesting things that I had never seen before. You know, the cooper, the blacksmith, the tinsmith, the servicemen. But of all the trades that I saw the most important thing was the food. So mething in me knew that I wanted to do that. I wanted to be a part of that. And that history was such a huge part of my imagination. My name is Michael W Twitty. I'm a culinary historian and James Beard award winning author. I've been a Hebrew school teacher, a historic interpreter, a cook, and a storyteller. The purpose of Colonial Williamsburg is to be a museum where people can engage with the history and legacy of the 18th century through the lens of Williamsburg, the colonial capital of Virginia. That sort of confuses people, because they, they come here thinking, everything is sort of primitive and backwards. And the reality is, they see a lot of parallels with their own daily lives. But also, with that comes the culture and context of race. Chickens a la cream with lettuce and lettuce is spelled L E, T, T, I Z And you can't hate on them, because there was no standard spelling of the English language. You know, my ancestors are restless. They're not satisfied. They're not..they're not secure yet. And I think I was brought into the world to help them find rest and honor. To pay homage to them. And that energy, that presence of, I need you to help not just me, but millions of forgotten people find their anchor is what draws me to cook the way I do experience food the way I do experience with others the way I do and how I relate to every single inch of this institution. I'm in that kitchen because I'm telling a story that could have disappeared at any point. So this is almost like a chicken suya, like in Cameroon. It's a lot of pepper. It's a lot of seasoning. It is just, you know, another clear example of how you know we've impacted barbecue culture in America and beyond. As far as the relationship between the food and African American and African Folk is concerned. First and foremost, I want people to understand we, the descendants of West Africa, are a 70,000 year old people. And I want to tell the stories about the food. The foods, they have gone back and forth across the Atlantic. That's why I call it the African Atlantic. So it's not simple. It's not just comforting. It's not exotic. It's us. This picture is how I met you before I knew you. This picture inspired me. And I think my first couple of visits here I didn't, we did not meet. So how old were you? I was probably 21, 22. What do you think people take for granted the most about the food that they eat today versus the food then? When I was raised, anything that flew, walked, crawled or swam was food in my family. And it had to be the same for folks back then. You didn't turn down any food. Anything you could cook, fry, roast, grill, char on a fire with the scale still on it but the flesh inside the fish was still good. You made food out of it. And there was nothing that you threw away. We are a throwaway society but people back then made something out of everything. Food can connect all the different people for all different backgrounds to tell more elegant, more adequate stories. And so for me, that's my, that's my vehicle that I use to tell those stories None of this is easy, but you got to make a commitment and a dedication to stand in the shoes of the slave folks and free folks and tell ther story. I'm working very hard to create a whole thesis of why the food of the African Atlantic and black American people especially is important and instructive to our culture, our history. Right now we have black nutritionists. We have black fitness folks. We have black sommeliers. We have black agronomists and we have black culinary histories of black chefs and black cooks. We got to communicate. We've got to work together. And if that's the case, then I think that whatever legacy I leave will be in good hands.
