Today is Crème Brûlée Day — and officially the LAST of the July food holidays affiliated with what I've started to refer to as #JamesHemingsJuly: my annual reclaiming of this month for Chef James Hemings, because so many of its food holidays trace straight back to dishes he introduced to America — yet almost never get to credit him.

Did you know that at their core, crème brûlée and classic vanilla ice cream are essentially the same dish? Classic vanilla ice cream as in the style that is based on the very first known / recorded vanilla ice cream recipe in America — a la what I shared in last week’s Vanilla Ice Cream Day post — the one penned by Thomas Jefferson but developed bye perfected by (and made a “million times” miraculously without any modern equipment) by Chef James Hemings (b. 1765) — for Jefferson and those he wanted to impress at his elaborate dining events -

Anyway, yes — : they each share the ‘same custard base: good quality cream, lots of egg yolks, sugar, and a whole vanilla bean:

• Freeze it and mould it, and you get a version of vanilla ice cream that is basically the very recipe James Hemings introduced to America via Jefferson's many hospitality tables (across multiple states: VA, PA, NYC…).

• Chill the custard a bit and torch the top — and voilà! — you get crème brûlée!

Either a creamy, icy cold, yet calming confection — or a warm hug in a ramekin dish with a thin, crispy caramelized top layer you crack through to access the comfortingly sweet vanilla creaminess beneath. The shared soul of both is that rich, vanilla-flavored French custard James mastered in Paris and brought home to America…

This past Vanilla Ice Cream Day I scooped up something super special — and it's available for you to access instantly…:

🍨The Vanilla Ice Cream Day VIP Vault — Contains:

1. the first vanilla ice cream recipe 🍨 ever recorded in 🇺🇸 American history (written by Jefferson's hand, but created from James' applied knowledge and ingenuity)

2. highlights from a video demo 🎥 of Chef Ashbell McElveen making James Hemings' vanilla ice cream 🍦

3. storytelling notes on the recipe 📜 for added insight and to help you make your own!

4. a treasure 🪎 trove of insight on the one surviving document that James Hemings wrote himself ✍🏽

5. hidden history behind how once nearly unattainable vanilla at long last became more accessible to consumers the world over.

👆🏽ALL Yours at NO COST — the win-win value exchange is to drop your name & email to help my community grow and the info you requested opens right away in a new window (not via email delivery👇🏾)

Before You Go, A Few More Timely Things to Know:

🍦 IT’S STILL #JamesHemingsJuly!🎂 🧑🏽‍🍳 🍝🍟 🍨🍦🍮

….  Find out WHY I started calling this month JAMES HEMINGS’ JULY → And check out the JAMES HEMINGS HUB → which houses my whole James Hemings content collection in one place.

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And REMEMBER: 🇺🇸 July 4th 🎆 only marked the start — the official, formalized spark. 🧨 Commemorate & celebrate America's 250th and its many milestones with Revolutionary Food & Drink… Much of which is connected to James’ legacy…

LASTLY FOR NOW BUT MOST CERTAINLY NOT LEAST!…

The work I do I call Applied Culinary History:

Products, Places, Persons, Platforms — all have untold, engaging stories. I help them discover and tell them insightfully, from well-informed and often inspired positions.

By reconnecting the past with the present, I provide the much-needed and almost always missing context that leads to better decisions and better results — instead of the 'luck' this entire industry seems to bank on. Intel that informs and can transform menu design, dishes and drinks offered, how they're described.

🍽️ Work With Me — TFG (The Food Griot) aka Tonya Hopkins | CLICK LINK BELOW ⬇️ TO CONNECT 👇🏾

→ Hire / inquire →

Happy National Ice Cream Day! which falls on the 3rd Sunday in July each year. But If you click onto any of the zillion and one “national ice cream day’ links like the one here you’ll find it void of any and all inclusive history…

Lucky ya’ll i have that covered for ya’s. IN MANY WAYS and options:

Have you seen yours truly droppin knowledge in my friend Carla Hall’s “Chasing Flavor ” Ice cream episode yet? … Or listened to all the (hidden) history I laid out in my ‘ origins of ice cream in America podcast episode? OR what I contributed to the Milk Street Radio Summer series episode where I also talk there about the hidden history of the origins of American ice cream with host Christopher Kimball ?…

VANILLA Ice Cream day is just around the corner on the 23rd as is Hot Fudge Sundae Day on the 25th and let’s not forget that July kicked off with Ice Cream FLAVORS Day on the 1st. Why all these Ice Cream Holidays? JULY IS ICE CREAM MONTH. And WHO has all the inclusive true history scoop on the makings of the AMERICAN ICE CREAM Industry as we know it? that ‘s right - me! Yours truly, “TFG “…

That said I’m serving up some BONUS SCOOP for my Patreon Community Members. More specificially: access to a Compilation of Audio & Video REPLAY LINKS to all the many scoops of TFG ice cream content including:

COPY & PASTE OF CAPTION FROM IG POST ICE CREAM AS SOUL FOOD POST: #ICECREAMMONTH's momentum is in full swing ya'll! We're already in the last full week of July -- which started off with "National Ice Cream Day" Sunday the 21st...followed by #VANILLA #IceCream Day on July 23rd ...then there's #HotFudge #Sundae Day on the 25th.
July began with Ice Cream #FLAVORS Day on the 1st, and there was also #Peach #IceCreamDay on the 17th...

BUT if you've clicked onto any of the many mainstream “ ice cream #holiday’ links on the internet you’ll find them DEVOID of ANY and ALL ethnically inclusive intel or #history (as in absolutely NO mention whatsoever of the #BlackAmerican #confectioners who made ice cream what it is today!) #YoureWelcomeAmerica 🫥🇺🇸…#LUCKY ya’ll I been done had that covered for some time now -- AND I've been servin' up said scoops (of MIA scoop) via myriad mediums over the years, including but not limited to:
📺TV:(most recently: Episode #1 in chef @carlaphall’s fab & flavor-filled show #ChasingFlavor via @streamonmax)

📻 Radio & Podcast episodes(@177milkstreet, @onwurd , @thephiladelphiacitizen + talks & lectures and written articles…

[CHECK MY LINKTREE FOR LINKs TO SOME OF SAID content & MEDIUMS ...]

& for now enjoy this REEL version I made from a post originally produced by @mack_river for @blackjoyreckon -- where you can actually READ the informative panels [they go by a bit fast in my reel LOL]. Bottom line:
Yes indeed we can confidently include Ice Cream in the category of #SOULFOOD 🙌🏾🙌🏾 ❤️🖤💚👨🏿‍🍳🧑🏾‍🍳🍦🍨🍧...

🔴 My Culinary History Talk (& Tasting!) At Lefferts Historic House [FULL PRESENTATION REPLAY AVAILABLE FOR PATREON SUPPORTERS ONLY] on how Vanilla Ice Cream and how it serves as an unlikely portal to our sometimes aghast American past"..

Last but not least you might also want to check out the docu film, “James Hemings: Ghost in America’s Kitchen” (yes, yours truly makes a cameo ;)

🍳 CHECK OUT my 🇺🇸 America’s 250th and JAMES HEMINGS HUBs on Linktree to learn why I've established #JamesHemingsJuly : Dig in deeper and discover more on America's first master chef and his unmatched culinary legacy .

🖇️ SEE my total LINKTREE for at a glance updates, info & experiential events [+ subscribe so you won't miss a single bite of hidden history as it continues to unfold…]

👉🏿 FIND MORE FREE TFG CALENDAR CONTENT HERE 👈🏿

SO… For Lunch or a Light Supper: A fresh spinach or arugula salad tossed with sliced slightly sweet, sliced cherries and a light vinaigrette. Plus a side of freshly fried (but most certainly not greasy) hot-buttered, corn fritter served straight out of a cast iron skillet…

OR you could just make a reservation at someplace fab like Borgo. I recently had the pleasure of enjoying their seasonal early-summer menu, which featured an amazing Buffalo Mozzarella appetizer with smoked cherries ❣️ sprinkled in alongside toasted hazelnuts—paired perfectly with a pour from a massive magnum of German rosé (Spätburgunder) curated by Borgo’s brilliant resident wine legend, Lee Campbell. . . Yum! . . .

Guess I’ll just have to go back to see whether a hearth-fried corn — polenta perhaps — ooh a “frittella!” . . .or a flame-kissed spinach dish might also make cameos in their summer lineups, which creatively changes with satisfying frequency. No doubt their pantry contains all those ingredients and then some 'on the regular' no less —plus, I know for sure they artfully and amazingly fry and sauté savory stuffs here & there, so... stay tuned! 😋

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Back to FRITTERS: (visually & audibly) enjoy these corn & okra fritters I fried up inspired by a recipe in “The Gift of Southern Cooking: Recipes and Revelations from Two Great American Cooks”, co-authored by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock.

And For FRESH SPINACH Day !…

HOORAY for “CHERRY DAY”!

July 16th, 2026 is ALSO National Cherry Day - Yes an annual celebration dedicated to this versatile antioxidant seed-centered fruit… The food historian in me can’t help but wonder why certain foods get chosen for fun optimistic sayings like “life is a bowl of cherries!” and “pretty please— with a cherry on top?!”…. But i digress. . .
Cosmically Cherry (with the “ch” pronounced like “sh”) is the childhood nickname of my amazing sister Aunt Cheryl Hopkins aka “Cha Hockey” (yes the Ch is like a Sh here too ;) … who left this world way too soon. I celebrate her TODAY and EVERY DAY!….

…And a few summers ago I learned that Cheryl has a shared birth date with the amazing Ida B. Wells! Almost to the exact year — one century apart! … I was not at all surprised to learn this fascinating fact and here's why:

Not unlike our collective and iconic elder Ida, Cheryl was a natural born activist and advocate for equality, equity, Civil Rights and justice. She was and continues to be a beacon for me having shed so much light and having shared so many books and resources on the truth of American History, essential African American history and intel, the wisdom of the ancient Africanic culture(s) from which we originate... I am forever grateful for her profound influence on me as a human being and on the nature of the very work I do…

On this special day every July 16th, I am comforted by the belief and evidence of sorts that her positive energy lives on in alignment with our ever-present Ancestors, with their timeless boundless leadership…

🖇️ Check out my 🔗 LINKTREE for myriad ways to see what’s going on at a glance, stay in the loop

+ explore more…

….
👉🏿+ FOR NOW You’ll FIND MORE FREE CALENDAR CONTENT HERE👈🏿

That France’s 🇫🇷 Bastille Day and America’s 🇺🇸 National Macaroni and Cheese Day share a date is quite the cosmic co-occurrence. There’s zero indication that the trade associations that registered the food holiday a decade ago had any clue about the dish’s deep French connection——and Chef James Hemings (b. 1765), who brought his French culinary training and the foundations of the dish back to America, was most certainly not on their radar. Nor, surely, was the almost unbelievable fact that he was actually there in Paris when the Revolution erupted—along with his sister Sally, Thomas Jefferson, and Jefferson’s daughters.

Through my scholarship, research, and writings on colonial-era foodways in general—and Chef Hemings’ work in particular—I’ve noticed cosmic chronological coincidences like these. And with consistent dot-connecting, I’ve been able to illuminate and share previously “hidden in plain sight” gems and historical gold nuggets containing uncanny, interwoven occurrences . . .

Kind of like an ‘unearthing and polishing of bits & pieces’ journey I’ve been dedicated to since first being introduced some moons ago to James Hemings' legacy by Chef Ashbell McElveen, the visionary behind founding the James Hemings Society, which I helped him co-found over a decade ago…

In the earlier 2000s, Ashbell was the first on record to publicly provide the facts in full context: including that in 1789, James Hemings was a young, enslaved American in Paris (owned by Thomas Jefferson), having been there for five years learning, apprenticing, applying and mastering the French culinary arts in the most prestigious, influential and royal kitchens in Paris. And at that point in time, James was serving as the head chef at Thomas Jefferson’s home, the Hôtel de Langeac (which also functioned as the American embassy). 

On the morning of July 14th, James was likely doing exactly what a master chef did then and still does—procuring, prepping, and consistently executing high-caliber menus. Because his market runs would take him deep into the heart of Paris not far from the fortress, he would’ve had to navigate and negotiate his way through a city abuzz in active revol—all while trying to secure provisions for Jefferson’s table that day— or perhaps to plan an upcoming elaborate multi-course dinner menu.

Over the course of the years James had cooked for notable figures like the Marquis de Lafayette and even for Marie Antoinette's royal circle, and the Queen herself — who was later immortalized in popular culture as indulging in ultra-lavish feasts behind palace walls—oblivious to the coming storm.

With the incendiary storming of the Bastille erupting all around, James once again was eyewitness to the birth of another Revolution — the French one this time — thus anchoring him to two of the western world’s defining historical moments, an Atlantic ocean and several years apart.

And the culinary revolution James brought back to America was also something to pay attention to. Mac & cheese is just one example of how he adapted French saucery and pasta making techniques he’d mastered in Paris and over time married them with simpler baked dishes popular during the era. The result? A cross-cultural masterpiece that permanently redefined American comfort food.

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Hungry for more? Including the stories behind all of those ‘special-occasion’ mac & cheese casserole snapshots you see in the photo carousel above? And why there is nary a pic of any boxed mac & cheese aberration to be found?…To get bigger portions of the story (stories!), you've got options and choices:

1. subscribe to my Substack and/or join my Patreon community which each provide pathways to connect with me directly.

2. Learn about (and perhaps partake in!) a James Hemings-centered Dining Experience I’m co-facilitating in Paris later this year!

3. In the meantime be sure to check out Ashbell's fantastic documentary, “James Hemings: Ghost in America’s Kitchen” (keep an eye out for my cameo clip! 😉).

There are myriad ways for you to choose inclusive intel over ignorance and pull up a seat at a more honest American table — and I look forward to communing with you there!

BUT WAIT, THERE’S EVEN MORE CONNECTED COSMIC-NESS to UNCOVER and CONVEY!….

Sending major happy birthday well wishes TODAY to an incredible contemporary colleague, Chef Tanya Holland, born on this historic day—nearly two centuries after James witnessed the revolution(s) Furthermore, this American-born, classically French trained (and French speaking!) Chef Holland recently launched her UVA course in June of 2026 : From Hemings to Holland: African American French-Trained Chefs with VA Roots — making the cosmic timing and alignment of this date even more goose-bumpy ✨…

Cheers to you on your birthday, Chef Tanya ! 🎊

🎉Joyeux anniversaire !

Clearly, James' legacy reverberates across time—having laid a nutrient-rich soil that sprouted American cuisine so to speak, most certainly inspiring uniquely American culinary greats like Chef Edna Lewis, born nearly 150 years after James made his mark (on the same April day as Thomas Jefferson, no less!) in a neighboring Virginia county—historically linked to Madison, Jefferson’s close friend and political ally and a plantation where James’ skills were ‘shared’…[this geographic synergy was initially shared in by Culinary Historian and Virginian native extraordinaire — Mr. Michael Twitty on an Edna Lewis panel we were both on back in 2013, each of us honored to be book-ending (pun intended) the late great Knopf Cookbook Editor Judith Jones …

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INDUSTRY ACCESS: What I do and refer to as “Applied Culinary History” can serve as cultural intelligence and strategic capital for proprietors, restaurateurs, chefs, bartenders and other professionals in the hospitality industry — as well as for places, products and brands throughout the wider food & beverage ecosystem. July’s a great time to celebrate America’s major milestones—via iconic drinks & dishes originally developed by our nation’s first classically trained chef (Hemings)—an integral part of our nation’s narrative, quietly serving as an invisible yet profoundly influential architect of American food identity. When you’re ready to unleash the power of hidden history, let’s make some timeless magic happen ✨ 🥂 ✨ …👉 Contact 👈 me  directly.

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For now 🍳 CHECK OUT my 🇺🇸 America’s 250th and JAMES HEMINGS HUBs on Linktree to learn why I've established #JamesHemingsJuly : Dig in deeper and discover more on America's first master chef and his unmatched culinary legacy .

🖇️ SEE my whole LINKTREE for at-a-glance updates, info & experiential events [+ subscribe so you won't miss a single bite of hidden history as it continues to unfold…]

👉🏿 + MORE SEASONAL TFG CALENDAR CONTENT HERE 👈🏿

Happy Birthday to me❣️…basking in the bounty of beautiful birthdays past, present (see carousel of photos below) and those yet to come. In fact, I’ve simmered up a very special B-Day soiree (in AC! 🥵) — NYC Foodie friends old and new — look out or a Partiful invite if you haven’t already received it…And set aside all your ambivalence about acknowledging Saturday’s historic significance — Escape the relentless heat wave and come raise a cool glass with me (oooh I’ll be featuring “NYC’s Best Two Ingredient Drink” — since there’s ALWAYS something — and several somebodies special to celebrate with here in the Biggest of All Apples 🗽 🎆 🥳

Happy Waffle Iron Day?!…

Waffle irons and waffles might’ve found their way to the Americas via the Dutch way back in the day a la the early 1600’ New York City—aka New Amsterdam including Brooklyn then spelled “Breuckelen” and a few parts of the Caribbean…. But I’ll give you one "Guess Who" made most (ok, ALL...) of the waffles in America — the Americas including places the Dutch never even set foot on — before the industrial food system started serving them up in bazillions of boxes for your freezer to conveniently pop singular square (or egg shaped!) ones into your countertop toaster?... READ ON TO FIND OUT …

(To do so you’ll have to join my PATREON community at any level to read two key upfront parts of this post):

“A Brief Basic Waffle Iron History”

AND

The Waffle Iron's "Missing History"

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…in his book, “The Cooking Gene”, food history interpreter, scholar and re-enactor — my friend the amazing Mr. Micheal Twitty writes:

…. “My favorite tool to hate is the waffle iron with its exacting timing and choreographed dance of greasing, heating, pouring in batter, counting seconds, flipping it, counting again, then removing it gently as not to mar a single inch of cake…” ~ Excerpt From The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty

[You can also get a glimpse of how waffle irons are associated with enslaved cooks from this 1 min YouTube video ]

But wait there’s more! Yours truly (me , Tonya , aka “The Food Griot “ 😁) touches on this for a recent KQED PBS FOOD digital episode of Beyond the Menu: “The REAL Story of Chicken and Waffles” (12 min).

Since my audio-visual contributions there are edited down into digestible sound bites in this 12 min piece, you can join my PATREON COMMUNITY if you’re interested in accessing the unedited version of all that i have to say on this topic and then some…

Become a TFG Patreon Supporter for more! [food and drink history & culture CONTENT, creativity, interviews, digital documents, food & drink demos, menus, recipes , pics, videos, and more]…

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Before photography existed hand drawn, sewn, sketched and etched images of pineapples symbolized luxurious hospitality (throughout Europe in particular, England especially and it’s colonies — including early America. And contrary to popular belief, pineapples are not native to Hawaii…

Pineapples are actually native to the Caribbean and tropical Central and South America where they’ve been cultivated for centuries. It is believed by many scholars and historians that both the Mayans and the Aztecs (each of ancient Mexico) were the first to cultivate pineapples somewhere around 750 BC…. 

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Become a TFG Patreon Supporter for more! [food and drink history & culture CONTENT, creativity, interviews, digital documents, food & drink demos, menus, recipes , pics, videos, and more]…

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Canoes were made and utilized for thousands of years in many cultures around the world, essential for navigation invasion and warfare but ALSO for fishing and other food securing purposes…

Below are pics i snapped of the beautiful (and large!) PRINCESS" Koa Canoe in Kuai Hawaii… it’s believed to have been made between 1860 and 1890, and holds a significant place in Hawaii’s history — a link to a dynamic past and a symbol of one of Hawall's royal /ruling families….

For more on this story and connection between canoes of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and those of indigenous peoples of the African content, become a Patreon supporter…

LEARN MORE ABOUT TFG’s PATREON PLATFORM ⬅️HERE

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[Today’s also National Chocolate Pudding Day and National Parchment Cooking Day…]

i grew up in (and still live in) a TV lovin & watchin family — and as you can see the tradition continues with my own (kitty) kids …

[ SO MANY DOTS TO CONNECT BETWEEN TV 📺 & AMERICAN 🇺🇸 FOOD & DRINK 🍔 🍟…WHICH MEANS THIS POST MIGHT JUST FURTHER UNFOLD — ON MY SUBSTACK OR PATREON PLATFORMS, PERHAPS …

STAY TUNED! - LITERALLY! 🤣]
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IN THE MEANTIME: Click Here for UPCOMING EVENTS You Can Attend Virtually or in REAL LIFE:

👉 SUBSCRIBE TO MY ✍🏽 📝 SUBSTACK 👩🏽‍💻 HERE 👈

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Speaking of MORE calendar content, turns out that despite the fact that all of August upcoming is Catfish Month — today, June 25th for whatever reason was declared as National Catfish Day. Plus it’s Strawberry Parfait Day too apparently. One guess which one my kitty kids are more excited about? …

Water Water — Everywhere?…

HAPPY HYDRATION DAY!… with all the recent heatwaves sweeping the nation lately, we really should be wishing each other Happy Hydration EVERY Day a lot more …

Yes, good quality water is optimal for good health — but it’s not the only way to stay well hydrated. Consuming a good amount of high-water content veggies and fruits is a wonderful way to support your great hydration goals when the weather’s hot and humid …

Cucumbers and watermelons (and other types of melons) have the highest water content of all vegetables and fruits. They are genetically related to one another and each genus/species originates from the continent of Africa, from the very same regions where the majority of African-Americans and Black people throughout the Americas/New World also originated. These crops arrived here in conjunction with the trans Atlantic slave trade. Enslaved (and later Emancipated) Africans in the Americas cultivated watermelons when and wherever they were able to have subsistence gardens and consuming the fruit provided much needed hydration not only to simply survive but also to be able to work from sun up til beyond sundown in sweltering Summer heat throughout the south eastern US, oft times without consistent access to potable water. They were also the primary purveyors of watermelons in America until shortly after ‘Reconstruction’ which had not only helped popularize the fruit across racial, ethnic and cultural lines to become the quintessential Summer fruit it is today but also was one of the most viable source of income for Black growers / producers — until bigger picture forces and factors ended that almost entirely...

In addition to recognizing the unspeakable horrors and enduring injustices that resulted from that largest forced mass migration in human history (that spanned centuries), I say we all oughta give gratitude to the generations of these ancestors across millennia for having cultivated such life saving crops that are today enjoyed the world over, once revered — but frankly much more taken for granted in modern times….

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Become a TFG Patreon Supporter for (so much) more! [food and drink history & culture CONTENT, creativity, interviews, digital documents, food & drink demos, menus, recipes , pics, videos, and more]…

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On this official first full day of summer (which i thought that was actually yesterday …?) Anyway, i have a completely unrelated question to ask:

Are you more of an Onion Rings or french fries person when it comes to your preferred deep fried side for a great burger?

Especially considering that — generally speaking — these particular foodstuffs don’t tend to support our summer swimsuit model goals. Not that we all have such goals, just sayin…

Chime in via your comments below!…

it’s also  National Chocolate Eclair Day …🧐🤔

Clearly some smug person with a great metabolism randomly assigned these early summer food ‘holiday’s…

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Become a TFG Patreon Supporter for more! [food and drink history & culture CONTENT, creativity, interviews, digital documents, food & drink demos, menus, recipes , pics, videos, and more]…

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👉🏿+ FIND MORE FREE CALENDAR CONTENT HERE👈🏿

HAPPY FATHER’s DAY!

full disclosure this post is “in progress” BUT whatever related stories and content to todays topics will likely appear on other TFG platforms and mediums a la (Substack, Patreon and such) so you have the option to check either of those but my advice to you would be to check out the homepage of my TFG website (which is what you’re reading this blurb on right now) and/or for efficiency’s sake, peep my TFG LINKTREE for an aerial view of all that’s available to you for free and whatever is for a charge.

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Become a TFG Patreon Supporter for more! [food and drink history & culture CONTENT, creativity, interviews, digital documents, food & drink demos, menus, recipes , pics, videos, and more]…

LEARN MORE ABOUT TFG’s PATREON PLATFORM

👉🏿+ FIND MORE FREE CALENDAR CONTENT HERE👈🏿

In this 250th Year of America’s Birthday…

A super special, barely known June food & drink related holiday date is JUNE 20TH: the anniversary of the Compromise Dinner of 1790, aka the Dinner Table Bargain—commemorating the night Thomas Jefferson hosted Alexander Hamilton and James Madison for a momentous, meal-based meeting that decided the fate of this once fledgling nation. Famously depicted in the Hamilton scene and song “The Room Where It Happened,” what is not widely known is that a still-enslaved James Hemings, America’s first classically trained chef de cuisine, is who made that multi-course, gargantuan, problem-melting meal actually HAPPEN!…

The meeting wasn’t just a casual (or even formal) conversation; but a high-stakes, meticulously orchestrated diplomatic event Thomas Jefferson hosted at his New York City residence on Maiden Lane. The idea was to explicitly and strategically use luxury hospitality to simmer down a boiling political crisis before a then young nation cooked its own goose. Jefferson’s big idea, made successful by James Hemings' exquisite execution that seasoned the situation perfectly, and turned what could’ve been a recipe for disaster into a more than digestable, even delightful deal.

James shoulda been (and still should be!) a character in Hamilton:

Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda; Directed by Thomas Kail; Choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler; and Produced by Jeffrey Seller, Sander Jacobs, Jill Furman, and The Public Theater, where the musical originally premiered Off-Broadway. The production’s source material is based on the biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.

And on the Music & Design Team There’s:

• Music Direction, Orchestrations, and Co-Arrangements: Alex Lacamoire

• Scenic Design: David Korins

• Costume Design: Paul Tazewell

• Lighting Design: Howell Binkley

• Sound Design: Nevin Steinberg

Why list all the creative talent in such detail, you ask? Well, because apparently every single one of these impressive innovators clearly missed the opportunity to put some shine on a main ingredient: the CHEF! Not just any chef —but our nation’s first ever formally, officially, classically-trained chef de cuisine in fact—the Founding Father of American Fine Dining, arguably. A BFD enough of a job title to be included as a supporting character in such an essential scene.

Despite James talents, accolades and accomplishments (including that he was fluent and literate in French and English) James was enslaved by and therefore the property of Thomas Jefferson. The “owner” of more humans than any . And it turns out that no real-life enslaved people are named, nor speaking characters with roles or lines in Hamilton — despite the show's diverse casting and such, for whatever decided reason, actual Black or Indigenous people of the era are not included in the stageplay. As for James’ conspicuous omission? We can credit Thomas Jefferson directly — who recalled the momentous meal in writing as actually having “saved the Union" by cooling passions enough for Hamilton and Madison to functionally communicate and strike a critical compromise (that traded the assumption of state debts for the relocation of the nation's capital to present-day DC) . Yet Jefferson completely erases James Hemings' name, labor, and presence from his documentation of the event and frames the entire evening as a meeting of white minds — solving problems on their own. As does the musical, even though they are depicted by people of color.

A CALL FOR COLLECTIVE, COLLABORATIVE ACTION:

Identifying the contemporary creative gatekeepers is just a first baby step in attempts to set the stage right. UP NEXT: I welcome YOUR HELP to change the script. Literally. So if you’re a producer, playwright, artist, or any other kind of Broadway industry insider with a seat at the table, message me directly so we can collectively strategize on how to get that key scene updated. Together let’s re-set the stage for roles of essential people like James to no longer left out — and collectively call for more complete, contextualized and inclusive narratives of our nation’s foundational history…

OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND:

For Marketers, Cultural & Culinary Programmers, Food & Beverage Directors and Buyers looking to activate around America’s 250th, this isn't just a historical footnote—it's a critical opportunity for a narrative course correction at a time when audiences demand the truth about our foundational history.

So when you’re ready to unleash the power of hidden history applied to elevate your product, brand, or mission with real cultural relevance—let’s talk. 🥂

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🌟 📣 ANNOUNCEMENT 🍽️✨: Speaking of more contextualized, inclusive narratives—this Thursday, June 25th, I’m partnering with Producer Otis Gray for a ticketed James Hemings Homage Dinner in collaboration with Studio BUMI. He’ll be executing a 3-to-4 course French-American menu and I’ll be wearing my TFG DRINKS! History hat to craft a classic yet custom colonial era ‘welcome punch’ (with an without ABV %) to kick off and quench the night. Together we’ll tag-team on the savory, salty & sweet storytelling with real history in between courses. Space is extremely limited (20–26 seats total). [TICKET LINK]

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE —There’s a 4th Qtr James-Centered Calendar Date too !

No time like the present to also share this incredible international event I’m co-facilitating on THANKSGIVING!:

🇫🇷 An “African-Americans in Paris” Themed Dinner — Inspired by & in Honor of James Hemings, Curated by Yours Truly in conjunction with Founder & Travel Artist Gai Spann of SPANNing the Globe Tours (STG Tours).

WHAT: An immersive, multi-course dinner and story telling experience honoring James Hemings (b. 1765) — that examines his transformative years of apprenticing and cooking professionally in Paris France from 1784–1789 . Chef Hemings emerged as he first classically trained, American born and raised to serve as chef de cuisine at major diplomatic residences, masterfully weaving Virginian ingredients and traditions into elite French technique. thus developing an arguably uniquely American expression of cuisine….

WHEN: This November (2026), during Thanksgiving week & weekend

This dinner will be the culminating celebration of the Noir Et Rosé: The Bordeaux Experience — a first-of-its-kind luxury river cruise through France’s legendary wine region, led by Gai Spann of Spanning the Globe Tours. The Paris dinner itself is an intimate experience for approximately 20 guests. Space is extremely limited.

For information on the full voyage or the Paris dinner part, contact STG Tours directly gai@stgtours.com / (844) 784-8687 🇫🇷✨

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“Juneteenth is a time to gather as a family, reflect on the past and look to the future. Discover ways to celebrate this African American culturalv tradition of music, food and freedom.” ~ NMAAHC

Juneteenth recognizes & celebrates the day (on June 19th 1865) that the last (very large) group of an estimated 1/4 million enslaved Americans were finally and officially freed from chattel slavery after the Union Army marched into the port city of Galveston, Texas — the last of the Confederate states to surrender in their defeat to the Union Army … [THIS POST CONTINUEs HERE ] —

(Naturally-Colored!) RED Foods & Drink Rules! ….
Learn all about the historical and cultural significance of serving red-colored food and drink for Juneteenth in my upcoming SPILL TEA PARTY LIVE! complete with a drink demo or two…

As for the source of said red coloring and such, to each his own but I personally don’t cook or concoct with (nor do I condone the use of) artificial or synthetic flavors or colors in dishes or drinks — RED DYE #3 is a known carcinogen that still shows up in thousands of American food products --including some people’s personal recipes this time of year. Not in any of my recipes! I’m happy to share suggestions and tips to arrive at vibrant red hued food & drink in myriad ways — join me on my first SPILL TEA PARTY for starters…
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June 19th is also National Martini Day !🍸…

That’s all I have to say on this for now — but feel free to join my ‘The Food Griot Drinks!’ channel on IG as one of the ways to get more of liquid based TFG intel…

But MORE IMPORTANTLY Become a TFG Patreon Supporter for more! food (and drink!) history & culture CONTENT, interviews, digital documents, food & drink demos, menus, recipes , pics, videos, and more!… Thank you in advance for helping support my work

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For June 17th — EAT Your Veggies Day!

Theme: Returning to the Table + Food Justice Today (= PART 2 of yesterday’s post)

Since June is Fresh Fruit & Veg MONTH, we’re keeping our fridges, pantries, plates — and food stories as full with nature’s bounty as possible! Yesterday we celebrated Fresh Veggies DAY by honoring the deep cultural roots and ancestral foodways that center vegetables from the myriad food cultures of my heritage: Black American culinary traditions.

Well TODAY, June 17th is EAT Your Veggies Day — where I’ll shift the focus from theory and recognition to ACTION. Today’s not just about appreciating fresh vegetables — it’s also about … nourishing ourselves with the same ingredients our ancestors used to thrive. For centuries — until the late 20th century — Black elders were among the most prominent faces of American … [READ FULL POST ON my PATREON Platform. Join at any level, even for FREE ]…

[…👆🏾CONTINUE READING my PATREON Platform about a remarkable reality to let marinate in our minds — especially when we consider the opposite realities our ancestors endured… ] where I’ve also included a special bonus link to my convo with the brilliant Charla Draper, founder/creator of SOUL FOOD MONTH herself!

Today’s topic is Part Two of a two-day series (check out yesterday’s Fresh Veggies Day post) and today’s is all about action in addition to appreciation.

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For Fresh Veggies Day: Honoring Ancestral Foodways via Plant-Based Traditions (= PART ONE of TWO)

….Rooted Many Moons Ago

June is Fresh Fruit & Veg Month — and June 16th brings us Fresh Veggies Day, a great moment to reflect on just how deeply rooted fresh vegetable consumption is in Black American and Diasporic food traditions….

Before it was trendy, it was tradition!

Black Americans — especially prior to and during the Great Migration (1910 to 1970)— primarily followed what we now call “plant-based,” “seasonal,” or “farm-to-table” diets. Meals were built around fresh vegetables, fruits, legumes, and grains — which were also canned, pickled and preserved for consumption during long winter months. Not because it was fashionable, but because it was what was available, affordable, a way to not be wasteful — and passed down for generations

As the late comedian and food activist Dick Gregory once said, “We didn’t call it a vegetarian or plant-based diet — that’s just the FOOD we ate growing up.” Similarly, chef and culinary icon Leah Chase reminded us, “We grew and prepared what we ate. If it didn’t grow, we didn’t eat it.”

Those weren’t soundbites — they were truths. Long before mainstream America knew the value and benefits of farm-to-table seasonality, many Black communities nationwide already knew and embraced the power of plants, sustainability, and seasonal eating. I’d like to think that today’s growing awareness around food justice, wellness, and reconnecting with the land is, in many ways, a return to that wisdom.

🌿 Let’s Celebrate Fresh Veggies Day today and as many days as we can this season by honoring those roots — and the people who cultivated them. Whether you’re harvesting from your own garden or buying local greens, you’re participating in a legacy worth preserving.

Also check out EAT YOUR VEGGIES DAY which is tomorrow (June 17th) & serves as PART 2 of today’s post

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Do you love lobster? Well here’s a little uniquely American history on this (now) fancy crustacean :

Lobsters were so plentiful that Native Americans used them as fertilizer and bait for fishing in addition to a source of protein: they baked them covered with seaweed over hot rocks — arguably the origin the “New England Clambake” tradition ... Lobster were so plentiful, and LARGE and inexpensive in early America they were primary food sources for “lower level” people like: prisoners, apprentices and enslaved people of African heritage who were the most influential group that changed the trajectory of lobster’s role in American foodways which helped establish it on the highest tier of fine dining in along the eastern seaboard (esp. Boston and NYC)…

…By the 1880s lobster became so popular among the elite class and prices started to rise…

while I may not have many pics of actual lobsters in my phone (and therefore in the curated carousel line up above), notice that i do have pics of places where I one day can perhaps go GET some lobsta when the budget permits… Since time-traveling back to when lobster was in abudance and INEXPENSIVE ain’t a viable option 😆 ..

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First: a crisp bit of history:
…Genetically related to watermelons 🍉, cucumbers 🥒 ( gherkins, etc. ) originate from all over Africa…

And Black Americans (women in particular) were not only known for but lauded and praised for their pickling prowess for centuries …

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PS. SIDENOTE SECTION:

Aaaand it’s National Strawberry Shortcake Day — which my very first absolute fave dessert on the planet as a kid until my best friend’s Mother with even deeper Southern roots than my very “Northern Negroes” family rocked my world with a homemade BANANA PUDDIN’ — long before it found its way onto Pop Culture’s plates and the menus of high-priced bakeries in Manhattan — Nobody (other than Black people — Southern rooted Black folks in particular) had ever heard of let alone tasted a true one. And when I did, it was a game changer. But I digress…

What about you ?! What game-changer foods (or drinks) recalibrated your palate once upon a time to the point where you knew (or at least hoped!) it would have to be in your edile world for forevermore from that moment forward? …Do tell, do tell: When it was, where you were, how old you were —whatever context that might make it a good story.

Staying Tuned,

Tonya aka TFG

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I have much more of a savory vs. “sweet tooth” , I’m more of a cook than a baker, nor do i come from a family of bakers…

NONETHELESS today’s the perfect day to shout out to THE baker in my chosen/extended fam, the awesome amazing LisaRoxanne! Pictured here on the left with a big ol box of ‘way better than store-bought’ (gluten-free!) bday cupcake deliciousness (in assorted flavors no less) for my bday soiree some moons ago…

But wait, there’s more! i hope ya’ll are on a device that shows you captions to the photos in the carousel below b/c there’s a story for each & erry pic no surprise …. ENJOY!

How are YOU celebrating cupcake lover’s day today? HMU via comments below thanks!

& CHEERS TO ROSÉ DAY!

Here’s to the wine I most love looking at in my glass. Although these days amazing hues of Orange Wines’ve been giving Rosé some competition in terms of swirled loveliness in a stem glass…

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