An exhibit celebrating 400 years of African American culinary history is coming to New York

African American culinary traditions have a long and storied history, but their influence doesn’t often receive the recognition it deserves. This winter, though, one New York museum will begin to rectify that situation, via a Kickstarter-funded exhibit dedicated to the black chefs, farmers, and food and drink producers who made the country’s cuisine what it is today.

Opening late February 2020 at the Africa Center in East Harlem, “African/American: Making the Nation’s Table” comes courtesy of the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) and a blockbuster lineup of food-world celebrities. Curated by Dr. Jessica B. Harris, a highly-decorated historian and a preeminent expert on African Diaspora cooking, with music selected by the legendary Questlove and tastings created by chef Carla Hall (formerly of Top Chef and ABC’s The Chew), the exhibit aims to highlight the African American community’s contributions to the foundation of America’s food culture.