'More American than Apple Pie': Modern African-American Cookbooks Fighting White Stereotypes

“African-American cooking is possibly even more American than apple pie,” writes Zanne Zakroof, editor at Gourmet magazine.1 Compared to the French roots of the apple pie, African-American food has more “American” roots that reveal as much about U.S. culture as the “all-American” apple pie. To understand the significance of African-American cooking, one needs to turn to the black women who have passed down this culinary tradition.2 Whether cooking or writing about food, they address a complex network of stereotypes about food, gender, women, and cooking. When black women write about food, they have to consider how their work fits into a long history of African-American culture and its relationship with food and cooking.