10 Foods Invented in Slavery That Fine Dining STOLE
The most celebrated dishes on America’s finest menus were never invented by the chefs who profit from them.
Fried chicken. Gumbo. Bourbon. Carolina Gold rice. These aren’t American inventions — they are African and Indigenous inheritances, built by enslaved people who were never paid, never credited, and almost never remembered.
In this collaboration between Where Food Began and Forgotten Table, we trace 10 foods from the plantation kitchen to the fine dining menu — and ask who actually deserves the credit.
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https://www.youtube.com/@UCJlJgtPnSlZth5LjUhBXKYA
— TIMESTAMPS —
0:00 — Introduction: The History That Was Stolen
1:20 — #1: Hoppin’ John
2:45 — #2: Fried Chicken
4:10 — #3: Red Rice
5:30 — #4: Okra & Gumbo’s True Origin
6:55 — #5: Watermelon — The Weapon Built to Erase It
8:20 — #6: Carolina Gold Rice
9:40 — #7: Benne Seeds
10:55 — #8: Pot Likker
12:10 — #9: Bourbon & Nearest Green
13:35 — #10: Gumbo — Where It All Comes Together
15:00 — What We Owe
— SOURCES & FURTHER READING —
• Michael Twitty, The Cooking Gene (2017)
• Psyche Williams-Forson, Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs (2006)
• Clay Risen, ‘Jack Daniel’s Embraces a Hidden Ingredient: Help From a Slave’ — New York Times (2016)
• Jessica B. Harris, High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America (2011)
• Judith Carney, Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas (2001)
If this video changed how you see something, it would mean the world to us if you hit like and subscribe — it helps more people find history that was meant to stay hidden.
💬 Tell us in the comments: Which of these foods surprised you most?
17 Comments
Can you do foods from Central and South America?
some true.somewhat the first documented recipe for fried chicken was published in 1747 by English cook Hannah Glasse in her book "The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy." .
video mostly half truths and a few outright lies. sad you have to use falshood and omitted history.
Bullshit post! Salt cured smoked food like bacon & ham comes from Europe, fried anything isn’t African because the African people didn’t fry they stewed; Africans didn’t extract oils much because they only used animal fats and didn’t use plant oils; tbh all this food wouldn’t have been made in Africa. Africans sold Africans & most of this food sucks.
The commentary sounds like he fights the good fight instead of being a total pud slapper. Pot licker is disgusting; this asshole is telling fairytales Bourbon is a whiskey made with corn & in many cases included wheat or rye but to be called bourbon it must be at least 53% corn & it’s all based off Scotch which used malted barley; I guess African slaves in Scotland invented malting also. Next thing you know it’ll be slaves that harnessed electricity made the phone, the lightbulb, phonograph, pasta, penicillin etc etc but I can guarantee they didn’t invent the contraceptive because everyone has been turned into slaves to them through taxes since the 70s.
Of those listed, I'm most thankful for Fried Chicken & Watermelon. I am Caucasion, but love these foods. There are others I enjoy & some I've tried but didn't like. But there are sooooo many different foods & cuisines I thank everyone for!!!!!
Like Elvis stealing their music.
Why is the volume so low ?
FOODS INVENTED DURING SLAVERY IN AMERICA :
@00:53 : HOPPIN' JOHN ( BLACK EYED PEAS AND RICE )
@01:55 : FRIED CHICKEN
@03:10 : RED RICE
@04:18 : OKRA
@05:34 : WATERMELON
@06:51 : CAROLINA GOLD RICE
@08:08 : CIOPPINO
@09:27 : POT LIKKER ( LIQUD LEFT BEHIND AFTER BOILING GREENS )
@10:40 : BOURBON WHISKEY
@11:55 : GUMBO ( SOUP MADE FROM OKRA )
@8:08 : You listed "CIOPPINO" but then you talk about "SESAME SEEDS !
Which one is it ?
You need to correct this !
Fried chicken originated in Scotland. The slaves added the spicy batter. Google it.
Notice how they keep referring to west Africa as the source of our native black American creations. None of these dishes in their current form are being made on the continent now or in the past. This is not applying credit correctly and continues the erasure of our ethnic black American identity.
You forgot barbecue
This is a little bit "off". What we can say is that certain ingrediants did come over with the slaves. Watermelon and Okra are the best examples. For this, everyone needs to be grateful! However, the idea that recipes are "stolen" is not the case. There is no such thing as a "stolen recipe". Anyone, any place in the world can make any type of food they want. Nothing is "stolen". As some one else pointed out fried chicken is from Scotland.
The Hortacha drink originated in Africa.
Fried chicken came from Scotland. Haggis never caught on, though.
Pot liquor and cornbread… light summer lunch.
But, who ever told you greens are cooked low and slow? If you cook greens like that you get a green sludge that only finds a use in certain specialty stews.
Somewhere in the middle 20th century common usage forgot that Gumbo is synonymous with Okra. Southern culture never forgot that but had it prejudicially edited out of mainstream faux tradition. Gumbo without okra is just a stew. Emeril is an idiot like that. Duck and herb gumbo in his restaurant is just a consommé with floaty bits of green and a sparce sprinkle of duck flesh that in no way resembles a true gumbo. My favorate Gumbo recipe comes from central Louisiana… Venison Sausage Gumbo is to die for.
Before America was even discovered, the Chinese were deep frying chicken, among other animal proteins, for centuries. Rice also originated in China.