Koshersoul,' fuses African-American and Jewish culinary histories

(JTA) — The James Beard Award-winning chef Michael Twitty released a book of recipes and essays that fuses Jewish and African-American culinary histories this week.

Twitty, 45, won acclaim for his 2018 book “The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South,” which also drew parallels between African-American and Jewish history. Twitty grew up in Washington, D.C., in a Christian household but around Jewish food, with a mother who regularly made challah; he converted to Judaism in his early 20s and now keeps kosher.

“[T]here are some things that science cann...