![Ruth Jackson’s Soulfood Cookbook](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/cookbooks/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2019/08/001-4-640x480.jpg)
African American Cookbooks
For many Black cookbook writers of the 20th century, writing about food was inseparable from autobiography. The recipes of chefs like Edna Lewis and Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor were incomplete without the stories surrounding their origin, preparation and sharing. Not designed to be quick and convenient, these dishes were made with simple ingredients, refined techniques, and not a small amount of practiced intuition. As chronicled by historians such as Toni Tipton-Martin, the writing and publishing of African-American cookbooks became an integral aspect of claiming, celebrating, and sustaining diverse black American cultures.![Ruth Jackson’s Soulfood Cookbook](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/cookbooks/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2019/08/001-4-640x480.jpg)
![The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/cookbooks/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2019/08/1-23-640x480.jpg)
![Vibration Cooking, or, the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/cookbooks/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2019/08/1-47-e1565289168488-640x480.jpg)
![Soul Food Cookbook](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/cookbooks/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2019/08/1-37-e1564780766822-640x480.jpg)
![The Taste of Country Cooking](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/cookbooks/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2019/08/1-44-e1564779385873-640x480.jpg)
![The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/cookbooks/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2019/08/1-19-640x480.jpg)
![Soul Food for Body and Soul](https://exhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu/cookbooks/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2019/08/001-5-e1564775662969-640x480.jpg)