Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor
Vibration Cooking was first published in 1970, not long after the term â€œsoul foodâ€ gained common use. While critics were quick to categorize her as a proponent of soul food, Smart-Grosvenor wanted to keep the discussion of her cookbook/memoir focused on its message of food as a source of pride and validation of black womanhood and black â€œconsciousness raising.â€In 1959, at the age of nineteen, Smart-Grosvenor sailed to Europe, â€œwhere the bohemians lived and let live.â€ Among the cosmopolites of radical Paris, the Gullah girl from the South Carolina low country quickly realized that the most universal lingua franca is a well-cooked meal. As she recounts a cool catâ€™s nine lives as chanter, dancer, costume designer, and member of the Sun Ra Solar-Myth Arkestra, Smart-Grosvenor introduces us to a rich cast of characters. We meet Estella Smart, Vertamaeâ€™s grandmother and connoisseur of mountain oysters; Uncle Costen, who lived to be 112 and knew how to make Harriet Tubman Ragout; and Archie Shepp, responsible for Collard Greens Ã  la Shepp, to name a few. She also tells us how poundcake got her a marriage proposal (she didnâ€™t accept) and how she perfected omelettes in Paris, enchiladas in New Mexico, biscuits in Mississippi, and feijoida in Brazil. â€œWhen I cook, I never measure or weigh anything,â€ writes Smart-Grosvenor. â€œI cook by vibration.â€This edition features a foreword by Psyche Williams-Forson placing the book in historical context and discussing Smart-Grosvenorâ€™s approach to food and culture. A new preface by the author details how she came to write Vibration Cooking.
Food and Drink,Food,Food and Drink,Cookbooks,Nonfiction,Autobiography,Memoir,Food and Drink,Cooking,Travel,Biography,Food and Drink,Culinary,Food and Drink,Food Writing,History,Food History
Vibration Cooking or the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl