Chefs prepare to serve dinner inspired by Anne Northup’s 1840s cooking One of the fascinating things about shopping at the farmers market is that we never know who we are going to meet. Our Park Slope market recently led us to Tonya Hopkins, a woman known as “The Food Griot”. Self-described as “an American food storyteller”, Hopkins uses the name the Food Griot to recall the West African legacy of traveling poets, musicians, and                        storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history.
Recently, Hopkins, together with Executive Chef Heather W. Jones and alumnae from the Institute of Culinary Education prepared a dinner after the style of Anne Northup, the wife of Northup portrayed in the Oscar-nominated movie, 12 Years a Slave. The dinner was served at the historic Morris-Jumel Mansion in NYC, where Anne cooked as a free woman of color during the time her husband was in captivity. Her culinary talents were much sought after.