When it comes to food and cooking, the American South is hot. Yet the stories and experiences of African Americans have been largely left out of the conversation. Is it a type of cultural appropriation, or just a sign of the times?

When I talk to a friend who is a white lifestyle doyenne about the notion of cultural appropriation in food, she says that I am being too sensitive. “After all slavery was a million years ago, and people don’t have maids and cooks anymore. Why hang on to the old stuff?” She tells me that Southern food is in a much better place now because it is mainstreamed. As you can imagine, saying this to a black woman doesn’t go