The WELCOME TABLE : African-American Heritage Cooking (Paperback)

by Jessica B. Harris (Author) "African-American cooking is a generational pursuit..." (more)
Key Phrases: seasoning piece, glass salad bowl, minced green bell pepper, New Orleans, South Carolina, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Cookbook celebrating the history of African American cuisine.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Harris is the author of a number of good cookbooks, including Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons: Africa's Gifts to New World Cooking (LJ 5/15/89), in some ways the forerunner of this one. Here she presents African American recipes of all sorts, from slave cooking, the source of many classic Southern dishes, to the family favorites she grew up with to her own sophisticated reinterpretations or inventions. Headnotes are readable and informative, providing culinary and cultural background and more; reminiscences from different cooks (and some noncooks) open the various chapters. Angela Medearis's The African-American Kitchen (LJ 8/84) offers a similar, somewhat more personal look at this culinary tradition, but Harris's thoroughly researched book is the essential purchase.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (December 4, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068481837X
• ISBN-13: 978-0684818375
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,349,911 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A marvelous cultural work...not just a cookbook, February 6, 2000

By	roland b. duke III (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews

Even though I'm not African-american ( except in the cultural sense that ALL Americans are somewhat African-american...our culture owing so much to Africa ), I LOVED this book! It explains so much about what I grew up calling "soul food", and in a way that neither puffs-up it's subject or trivializes it in any way. The depth of this book simply must be seen and experienced to be appreciated. there is no way, for instance, that this book could well lend itself to making Afroamerican cooking "chi-chi", as has happened to so many other cuisines that have become trendy. The title says it all: "Welcome...whoever you are. Sit down and eat. Enjoy!" But, the book never panders to the hip and trendy. I also liked the recently published Tuskegee University cookbook, which was, unfortunately, stolen recently. Buy this book if you are at all interested in the origins of many things that most Americans think of as "American", but are actually African in origin.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Sweet Potato Pie Recipe, July 10, 2003

By	patrice williamson "patricewilliamson" (Spokane, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This is my favorite cookbook. All of the recipes are practical,the ingredients are easily found (you probably have most in the kitchen already) and they are for food that everybody likes to eat. A short history and sometimes photographs accompany most of the recipes. My favorite recipe from the book is the one for sweet potato pie, it is always a crowd pleaser. My parents actually purchased this book several years ago when I was in high school, when I left for college I made sure to take it with me.

The Welcome Table at times seems like a novel, the author's personal notes draw the reader into her life experiences and its easy to forget that this is a cookbook.