In recent years, the United States’ food scene has seen a new wave of interest in how historical, political, and societal forces have shaped people’s access to food and our food culture.

Celebrating Black History Month, award-winning food writer, attorney, and certified barbecue judge, Adrian Miller, will speak about the influence African-American cooking has had on American culture. Miller has written about African-American cuisine in its various forms for more than a decade, so much so that he goes by the nickname “The Soul Food Scholar.”

In a conversation with Norwegian food writer Andreas Liebe Delsett, they will explore the history of some well-known (and some lesser known) American dishes and food culture, to understand how cooking and food relate to issues of ethnicity, class, and gender.

Adrian Miller

Adrian Miller’s James Beard Award-winning first book, Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time (2013), explored how soul food traditions have informed African-American culture and identity. His latest book, Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue (2001), delves into the origins of African-American barbecue traditions and includes profiles of pioneering barbecuers throughout history, plus 22 of the recipes that made them famous.

Before becoming a food writer, Miller served as a special assistant to former President Bill Clinton’s One America Initiative, dedicated to promote community dialogue and address issues of racial, religious, and ethnic reconciliation.

Miller has served on the board of the Southern Foodways Alliance and is also the author of The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, From the Washingtons to the Obamas (2017).

Andreas Liebe Delsett

Andreas Liebe Delsett is a Norwegian food writer and former head of programming at Litteraturhuset. For his first book, For his first book, Silence of the Chefs – An Outsider´s Story of Kitchen Life (Kjøkkenveien, 2019), Delsett took up an apprenticeship at an Oslo restaurant to explore what issues of class, gender, and knowledge production look like from the perspective of chefs and food workers. In his recent book, The Worrysome Food – How What We Eat Became a Problem and What We Can Do About It (Den vanskelige maten, 2022), Delsett takes a critical look at class and access to food in Norway and the United States, and he further explored the intersection between food culture and social movements in the United States through a recent series of articles in Morgenbladet.