Booking and details
Get TicketsDates Sat, Jul 26, 2025, 7pm
Venue Folger Library
Tickets $20 Members / $25 Nonmembers
Join us for our next evening of “Cocktails and Conversation,” with writer, culinary historian, and educator Michael W. Twitty!
Michael will give a talk on the complex history of rice cultivation, the early modern American South, and the enduring connection between foodways and culture.
The talk will begin at 7pm. Arrive early for food and drink purchases from our café, Quill & Crumb.
About Folger Institute
The Folger Institute is a center for early modern research at the Folger Shakespeare Library that brings public audiences together with researchers to explore the cultures and legacies of the early modern world. Learn more.
About the Speaker
Michael W. Twitty
Michael W. Twitty is an African-American Jewish writer, culinary historian, and educator. He is the author of The Cooking Gene, which won the 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Book of the Year as well as the category for writing. His third book, Kosher Soul, was published in 2022 and was the first book by a Black author awarded the National Jewish Book Award. Twitty has made appearances on Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods America, Taste the Nation with Padma Laskshmi, Netflix’s High on the Hog and Many Rivers to Cross with Dr. Henry Louis Gates on PBS.
Related blog post
Michael W. Twitty developed this recipe for the Folger’s 2019 exhibition First Chefs: Fame and Foodways from Britain to the Americas and joined Folger curators in cooking it.
Akara from Africa: Black-eyed pea fritters, inspired by Hercules
Learn more about black-eyed peas’ place in the early modern world and enjoy this akara recipe inspired by Hercules, a chef enslaved by George Washington.