Join The Cookout

Here’s the thing about African-American cuisine. It transcends taste buds and overflows with riveting stories from crowned royalty to shackled enslavement and beyond. If there is one thing that we, as Black people, can do is throw down in the kitchen. We are a layered group of people and we tell the narrative through our storied cuisine.

The Cookout is here to give the receipts. We are viewing Black cuisine through our lens while filling a space in the market that has left us out. In today’s food media, there is inequitable coverage of Black cultural cuisine and its history, further exasperating the blatant and disrespectful gap in representation. This is a call to invest in ourselves and let mainstream media know that misrepresentation and unfair treatment of Black culture ain’t it.

We are bringing you weekly conversations with Black restaurant owners, spotlighting Black-owned wine and spirits, and delivering the latest news in the Black food industry. This is where we amplify our kinship, pride, knowledge of self and voices and then run and tell that to the rest of the world. Period.

Before grits were served with shrimp (not debating salt or sugar...yet!), it was a menial slave meal for daily survival. Before mainstream media turned watermelon into a racial stereotype, it was a crop signaling Black emancipation. Black people in the kitchen is an experience and we’re gonna show the intimate ties between fried okra and summer nights. Seasoning chicken is a labor of love and you’re gonna taste the Lawry’s seasoning for the win.

Vibing at the table is a celebration and you’re gonna feel that a unified folk is a strengthened folk. Black people in conversation are amplified brilliance and we all know that innate talent and genius erupts when we gather. The point is, Black people are a glorious people.

We’ve given game-changing contributions to the world and The Cookout is here to remind everybody and they mama. We know our stories best and we’re determined to tell them the right way.

Here’s to experiencing, celebrating, exploring, discovering, embracing, loving and amplifying.

Let us know if you're down, because you’re already invited. Now all you gotta do is RSVP at thecookout.co.

Peace and Chicken Grease,

JJ and The Cookout Team