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We Are What We Eat: Nigerian Chef Tunde Wey On Why Food Is Political

A Nashville hot chicken sandwich on display at Chicken Coupe Chicken Coupe hosted by Whoopi Goldberg during Food Networ & Cooking Channel New York City Wine & Food Festival. (Monica Schipper/Getty Images for NYCWFF)

Part III of our “We Are What We Eat” series.

The food we eat tells us so much about not only who we are as people — but also as a country.

What we love to eat and what we can afford to eat all tells a story that is uniquely ours even as it’s shaped by economics, geography and immigration. Our American foodways are also changing because of the coronavirus pandemic and this year’s racial reckoning.

Tunde Wey has been thinking about this for a long time. The New Orleans-based chef and writer from Nigeria made headlines last year with a food stand project where he charged white people and others more money for their meals as a means of paying for their daily privilege.

Wey’s North Nashville dinner project took advantage of one of the

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