And it's really about the food that black migrants from the South took with them to other parts of the country. But I think of soul food as the limited repertoire of Southern food. There's a lot of overlap hence the confusion, because there are a lot of common ingredients. On the difference between soul food and Southern food but then let's be creative and play around with these foods." Miller hopes soul food will be celebrated and get the same treatment other ethnic foods have received. Miller's book is an extensively researched look at the history of soul food, but also its future: "I say honor the past, work on the future.
For example, he suggests using smoked turkey in greens rather than ham hocks. And he offers plenty of alternatives for preparing soul food dishes. He's careful to say that he's not a nutritionist but points to other factors that contribute to these diseases, such as the rise of processed and fast foods. "Reflexively they're looking at the African-American community and they're seeing all of the health problems, you know, obesity, chronic disease like diabetes, heart attacks, cancer and all these other things and just linking the two," Miller says. Concerned friends sent messages, asking about his health. But for the most part, the economics and the reality of such meant that people were often eating the same food."ĭuring his research, Miller ate in over 150 restaurants serving soul food, often posting pictures of his meals on Facebook. that you had this bifurcated feeding system where the enslaved got some set of foods and the big house got different cuisines. "So it was really only on the really large plantations. "A lot of time master and slave were eating out of the same pot," he says.
Miller says the common perception is that soul food is slave food, but that's only partially true, he tells Michel Martin, host of NPR's Tell Me More. Getting past some stereotypes about soul food is one goal of his new book. "With the only qualifications of eating the food a lot, and cooking it some, I dove in," says Miller. After the president's second term, finding himself with extra time on his hands, he ended up spending the next decade or so researching soul food. (Amy Ta/NPR)Īdrian Miller is a lawyer and former special assistant to President Clinton. The Mac and Cheese and Hibiscus Aid were prepared by Rock Harper of DC Central Kitchen.