Award-Winning Author and Culinary Historian Michael W. Twitty to Discuss Food as a Pathway for Connection and Change// Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg
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Award-winning author and culinary historian Michael Twitty is coming to St. Petersburg.
Twitty will be discussing the intersection of Southern cuisine and African American culture on Wednesday evening.
The James Beard award winner will speak at the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg as part of their ‘Speakers Who Inspire’ series.
He’s sharing insights from his book, titled ‘The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South.’
The book traces the roots of Twitty’s own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine.
“I think a lot of people have hyperfocused on the idea of food people as chefs, as hospitality, as food preparers, but we need African American, we need Black people who think and write about the power of food and how it works in our culture in our community,” Twitty told WMNF.
Twitty says he’s known since childhood that food can tell a story.
“It was a way of generating memories, a way of sharing thoughts and ideas and making sure that we understood in a very visceral, sensual level that our history could be, you know, re-approached, reassessed through experience and that by eating those greens, by eating that cornbread, by eating, the spices you were in a flow of the generations and you understood that what happened, what you experienced, what happened to you, happened to your parents, your grandparents and going back. And that we know with time that what happened to your children, your nieces, your nephews, your grandchildren, the community that you would then become an elder of. And so was it was like a it was like a thing immediately. My first food other than formula was pot liquor and cornbread. And that is something that was very old-fashioned and very true to the culture of the Deep South.” Twitty said.
Date: April 29, 2026
Time: 6 PM – 7:30 PM with a book-signing afterwards; doors open at 5 PM for dinner and an engagement opportunity with representatives of our local St. Pete food systems
Location: The Foundation’s Center for Health Equity, 2333 34th St. S, St. Petersburg, FL 33711
Registration: Sign up for free online at https://www.meetatthecenter.org/michaeltwitty
Listen to a long interview with Micheal Twitty from Nadine Smith of Wide Awake America.