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Want a Healthy Kitchen?
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Alex Gronke
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Last Updated on March, 09 2009 at 09:52 AM
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| There was a time in high school when Bryant Terry "went off the deep end with junk food." The author of Vegan Soul Kitchen
indulged an adolescent appetite for McDonalds, Burger King, and the
offerings of other dreck purveyors in his hometown of Memphis. The
memory of the satisfaction that came from cheap, fatty food informs
Terry's work as a food writer and activist in Oakland some 20 years
later. He's not judgmental when he sees a kid tucking into a bag of
Cheetos. He just wants the kid to know there's a better world of food
out there. |
Bryant Terry Photo by: Bart Nagle
There was a time in high school when Bryant Terry "went off the deep end with junk food." The author of Vegan Soul Kitchen indulged an adolescent appetite for McDonalds, Burger King, and the offerings of other dreck purveyors in his hometown of Memphis. The memory of the satisfaction that came from cheap, fatty food informs Terry's work as a food writer and activist in Oakland some 20 years later. He's not judgmental when he sees a kid tucking into a bag of Cheetos. He just wants the kid to know there's a better world of food out there.
Terry's foray into the world of fast food was a short interlude. His grandparents moved to Memphis from rural Mississippi and they took their agrarian knowledge to their homes in the city. "All available space was used for backyard gardening. It was more like an urban farm," Terry says. The backyards were full of vegetables, there was a walnut tree in the front yard of his paternal grandfather's house. Neighbors' homes yards were so full of fruit trees, they were more like orchards. The harvests were shared. The food Terry grew up eating was simple, fresh, minimally seasoned, and delicious.
It's the same sort of fare that he gives a vegan twist to in Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine. Published earlier this month, it includes recipes such as spicy goobers, grits, Jamaican patties, and chocolate-orange pudding. It followed two years of experimentation in his kitchen. It's his second book. In 2006, he co-authored Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen with Anna Lappe, the daughter of Frances Moore Lappe, who published Diet for a Small Planet in 1971.
Terry, 35, says he was always a "greedy kid," always interested in food, always eager to watch his maternal grandmother or his paternal grandfather cook, but food didn't become his calling until he was in his mid-20s. He was a graduate student in history at New York University when he started to become interested in the link between social justice and food security. He dropped history, left NYU and enrolled in New York City's Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts.
He discovered Oakland in 2003 when the People's Grocery invited him to teach some cooking classes. He moved here in 2005, and lives in the Laurel District. He says Oakland "has the biggest concentration of people who get me."
A poster Terry created with artist/activist Favianna Rodriguez
Terry says he is particularly pleased that the new book is being well received by blacks. "I was afraid that it might put off potential black readership." Bryant doesn't call himself a vegetarian. He says he has a "plant-based diet that's devoid of meat."
You might see Terry at the Grand Lake Farmer's Market. He says that now is the time to pick up the greens you'll need for his Gumbo Z: "It's a fun way to get a lot of greens in one dish. It's tasty. It's a buck fifty." You can buy Vegan Soul Kitchen at Laurel Books: 4100 MacArthur Boulevard, 510-531-2073
Bryant Terry's Favorite Oakland Restaurants:
Pizzaiolo
5008 Telegraph Avenue
510-652-4888
www.pizzaiolooakland.com/ -
Taco Truck
23rd Avenue and International Boulevard
Champa Garden
2102 8th Avenue
510-238-8819
www.champagarden.com
Cock-a-Doodle Cafe
719 Washington Street
510-465-5400
www.cockadoodlecafe.com
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