Join HMI & Chef Michael Twitty as we honor Juneteenth. Twitty is a food writer, culinary historian, and Judaic studies teacher based in the DC-area. He’s an icon in his work to help the public understand how African-American food shaped American cuisine. His Kosher/Soul exploration deals with how we construct our identities and express them through what we eat. It melds the the histories, tastes, flavors, and Diasporic wisdom of being Black and being Jewish.

Twitty has appeared on Bizarre Foods America with Andrew Zimmern, Many Rivers to Cross with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, and has lectured to over 450 groups. He has served as a judge for the James Beard Awards and is a fellow with the Southern Foodways Alliance and TED and was the first Revolutionary in Residence at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Southern Living named Twitty, one of “Fifty People Changing the South and the Root.com added him to their 100 most influential African Americans under 45. Beyonce beat him out as number one.” He also made the Jewish Forward’s list of most influential American Jews. HarperCollins released Twitty’s The Cooking Gene, in 2017, tracing his ancestry through food from Africa to America and from slavery to freedom, a finalist for The Kirkus Prize and The Art of Eating Prize and a third place winner of Barnes&Noble’s Discover New Writer’s Awards in Nonfiction. The Cooking Gene won the 2018 James Beard Award for best writing as well as book of the year, making him the first Black author so awarded. His piece on visiting Ghana in Bon Appetit was included in Best Food Writing in 2019 and was nominated for a 2019 James Beard Award. Kosher Soul is his next book and will be released in 2022.

Tuesday, June 22
8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT