Many think that California cuisine is heavily inflienced by Mecican and Asian cuine yet there is another influence - the African American one. Fueled by thirty years of Great Migration, this is a cuisine with Southern roots and Golden State ingredients. It's finally being acknowledged in a cookbook by a California chef.
Food writer and podcaster of A Hungry Society Korsha Wilson wrote about this and chef Tanya Holland in today's New York Times Food section. Chef Holland is the author of a new book highlighting California soul food.Tanya Holland's California Soul : Recipes from a California Journey West (Ten Speed Press 2022)> She has written other cookbooks and also hosted a TV cooking show "Tanya's Kitchen Table." Yet it is her restaurant Brown Sugar Kitchen that made her famous. Hers is a fusion of her parents Louisiana and Virginian roots with California grown and native ingredients. Hery chunky apple, sliced Granny Smith apples caramelized in a cast iron skillet. recipe was parially inspired by her grandmother back in Virgnia, she also baked rolls with sweet potato along with cooking apple cider braised pork chops and gumbo z'herbes with crab and prawns. This type of fusion cooking came about from the Great Migration between 1940 to 1970 when African americans left Lousiana and Texas and settled in Oakland and Los Angeles. The brought their recipes with them and subbed in Dungeneess crab for blue and used rice grown in the Sacramanto Valley for Lousiaina classics like jambalaya and dirty rice. Santa Maria style barbecue blended with Texas smokehouse tradition.
Chef Holland's background is an impressive mix. She was born in Connect cut and raised in Rochester , new York. She trained in Burgundy, france at the Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne after graduating from the University of Virginia. She worked at a series of French style restuarants in the US but was routinely denied the opportunity to learn new skills and mive up through the ranks. she had to create her own opportunities. she moved the San Francisco Bay area whre she opened Brown Sugar Kitchen. she sourced local bakers and farmers to stock her eatery. She has left there and now works with the James Beard foundation to make its' award more inclusive. Three of her recipes are included in the article. There is her gumbo that is loaded with Dungeness crab and shrimp, spiced with file and thyme.It also has potatoes , onion and - a California influence coconut milk in it. Then there are her sweet potato rolls which take a new spin on a classic bread recipe. Her date bars are a nod to one of California 's most popular fruits, dates. She makes a paste of them and uses it as the filling for rich brown sugar and butter rich cookie .
California soul cooking is an important part of the state's culinary history.It is a fusion of traditional recipes and native ingredients. It's a perfect marriage that creates delicious dishes.
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