Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew

Written by Michael W. Twitty

Narrated by Michael W. Twitty

The James Beard award-winning author of the acclaimed The Cooking Gene explores the cultural crossroads of Jewish and African diaspora cuisine and issues of memory, identity, and food.

In Koshersoul, Michael W. Twitty considers the marriage of two of the most distinctive culinary cultures in the world today: the foods and traditions of the African Atlantic and the global Jewish diaspora. To Twitty, the creation of African-Jewish cooking is a conversation of migrations and a dialogue of diasporas offering a rich background for inventive recipes and the people who create them. 

The question that most intrigues him is not just who makes the food, but how the food makes the people. Jews of Color are not outliers, Twitty contends, but significant and meaningful cultural creators in both Black and Jewish civilizations. Koshersoul also explores how food has shaped the journeys of numerous cooks, including Twitty’s own passage to and within Judaism.

As intimate, thought-provoking, and profound as The Cooking Gene, this remarkable book teases the senses as it offers sustenance for the soul.

Koshersoul includes recipes.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Aug 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9780063090699

Michael W. Twitty

Michael W. Twitty is a noted culinary and cultural historian and the creator of Afroculinaria, the first blog devoted to African American historic foodways and their legacies. He has been honored by FirstWeFeast.com as one of the twenty greatest food bloggers of all time, and named one of the “Fifty People Who Are Changing the South” by Southern Living and one of the “Five Cheftavists to Watch” by TakePart.com. Twitty has appeared throughout the media, including on NPR’s The Splendid Table, and has given more than 250 talks in the United States and abroad. His work has appeared in Ebony, the Guardian, and on NPR.org. He is also a Smith fellow with the Southern Foodways Alliance, a TED fellow and speaker, and the first Revolutionary in Residence at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Twitty lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Reviews for Koshersoul

[squeakychu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found this book fascinating in its discussion of the intersection of Black and Jewish cultures. As the author notes, Blacks are a minority of the Jewish population, but my knowledge of them has been taken from different circumstances. I especially loved that the author had once lived near where I live now in Montgomery County, Maryland, so I recognized names of people I knew in the dedication of this book! That gave him so much credibility in my view in addition to his vast knowledge of Judaism which he shared both in his writing and in being a Hebrew school teacher. I liked hearing about the Black-Jewish relationship from this Black author rather than from the Jewish point of view, with which I am familiar. The chapter about radio personality Marc Steiner’s reminiscences of growing up in Jewish-Black 1950s Baltimore as segregation was trying to end held a special fascination for me because that was my hometown at that time. His descriptions of that place at that time were spot on. The chapter called “Katie - ‘I Feel Like Me’” made me cry. It was about a Hebrew school student of the author’s who finally felt like her true self when presenting a school project about Jews of Japan. She herself was the daughter of a Jewish Japanese American mom and an Ashkenazi Jewish dad. After making her presentation, she told her teacher, the author of this book, “I feel like me...the whole me.” One thing that especially touched me deeply is that Twitty writes with such love for Judaism. As a born Jew, I never want to take my religion for granted, but as the author was a convert, my respect for him deepens as that which is so meaningful to me is just as meaningful to him. The one thing in this book I didn’t like was the author saying he was not a fan of shakshuka, poached eggs in a highly spiced tomato sauce dish. How can that be?! :)The second half of the book about the intersection of African American and typical Jewish food had some absolutely great cooking ideas which I can’t wait to try. Using smoked turkey necks or Liquid Smoke for flavoring beans or soup sounds fabulous. I also can’t wait to try making fake crab cakes! To me, this was a fabulous book and quite a special treat to read.