Soul on Rice: African Influences on American Cooking

by Patricia B. Mitchell

An interesting look at the influence of African food on American cooking. Softcover with stiff paper wraps. Stated Twenty-first printing. 37 pages.

Genres: Cookbooks, History

37 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1993

About the author

Patricia Mitchell began foodwriting as a contributor to The Community Standard magazine in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the early 1970's. After she and her husband Henry returned to their hometown of Chatham, Virginia, in 1975, Patricia put her writing on the “back burner” while restoring an old home (the Sims-Mitchell House, which the Mitchells operated as a bed and breakfast for over twenty years) and starting a family (now her collaborators Sarah, David, and Jonathan). In 1986, requests from B&B guests helped motivate Patricia to compile some of her recipes into book form. In a providential turn of events, a visiting museum director asked to purchase some of the little books for resale in his museum's shop. Soon a re-order came, with suggestions for an even greater emphasis on food history.

Through the years, the resulting Inkling Series has included over a hundred titles, selling over three-quarters of a million copies at museums, historic sites, bookstores, and shops in 49 states and internationally.

Poring through diaries, letters, microfilmed records, and mountains of old books, Patricia spends endless enjoyable hours in her search for clues to Americans' eating habits and cooking techniques of years gone by.