In this Book
- Vibration Cooking: or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl
- Book
- 2011
- Published by: University of Georgia Press
Vibration Cooking was first published in 1970, not long after the term “soul food” gained common use. While critics were quick to categorize her as a proponent of soul food, Smart-Grosvenor wanted to keep the discussion of her cookbook/memoir focused on its message of food as a source of pride and validation of black womanhood and black “consciousness raising.”
In 1959, at the age of nineteen, Smart-Grosvenor sailed to Europe, “where the bohemians lived and let live.” Among the cosmopolites of radical Paris, the Gullah girl from the South Carolina low country quickly realized that the most universal lingua franca is a well-cooked meal. As she recounts a cool cat’s nine lives as chanter, dancer, costume designer, and member of the Sun Ra Solar-Myth Arkestra, Smart-Grosvenor introduces us to a rich cast of characters. We meet Estella Smart, Vertamae’s grandmother and connoisseur of mountain oysters; Uncle Costen, who lived to be 112 and knew how to make Harriet Tubman Ragout; and Archie Shepp, responsible for Collard Greens à la Shepp, to name a few. She also tells us how poundcake got her a marriage proposal (she didn’t accept) and how she perfected omelettes in Paris, enchiladas in New Mexico, biscuits in Mississippi, and feijoida in Brazil. “When I cook, I never measure or weigh anything,” writes Smart-Grosvenor. “I cook by vibration.”
This edition features a foreword by Psyche Williams-Forson placing the book in historical context and discussing Smart-Grosvenor’s approach to food and culture. A new preface by the author details how she came to write Vibration Cooking.
Table of Contents
- Preface to the 2011 Edition
- pp. xxxiii-xxxvi
- The Demystification of Food
- pp. xxxvii-xlii
- HOME
- First Cousins and the Numbers
- pp. 42-50
- AWAY FROM HOME
- MADNESS
- Forty Acres and a Jeep
- pp. 71-73
- Name-calling
- pp. 74-79
- Hospitals Ain't No Play Pretty
- pp. 80-85
- Taxis and Poor Man's Mace
- pp. 86-88
- LOVE
- I Love Dinner Parties
- pp. 103-106
- . . . My Friends
- pp. 107-115
- . . . African Clothes
- pp. 116-118
- . . . Bon Voyage Parties
- pp. 119-126
- MIXED BAG
- Collards and Other Greens
- pp. 129-134
- Poultices and Home Remedies
- pp. 135-136
- Aphrodisiacal Foods
- p. 139
- Cocktails and Other Beverages
- pp. 140-143
- White Folks and Fried Chicken
- pp. 144-149
- The Jet Set and Beautiful People
- pp. 150-156
- TO BE CONTINUED
- The Kitchen
- pp. 183-184
- Appendix 1: Introduction to the 1986 Edition
- pp. 187-194
- Appendix 2: Introduction to the 1992 Edition
- pp. 195-208
- Index of Recipes
- pp. 209-212