Bound to the Fire

How Virginia's Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine

By: Kelley Fanto Deetz

Narrated by: Nancy Bober

Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Kelley Fanto Deetz draws upon archaeological evidence, cookbooks, plantation records, and folklore to present a nuanced study of the lives of enslaved plantation cooks from colonial times through emancipation and beyond. She reveals how these men and women were literally "bound to the fire" as they lived and worked in the sweltering, and often fetid, conditions of plantation house kitchens. These highly skilled cooks drew upon skills and ingredients brought with them from their African homelands to create complex, labor-intensive dishes such as oyster stew, gumbo, and fried fish. However, their white owners overwhelmingly received the credit for their creations.

Focusing on enslaved cooks at Virginia plantations including Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and George Washington's Mount Vernon, Deetz restores these forgotten figures to their rightful place in American and Southern history.

"A lively and insightful account of a still-largely-unfamiliar aspect of the history of American slavery." (Publishers Weekly)

"A great service of expanding the literature connecting African and African American foodways with those with which we are familiar." (H-Net Reviews)

"A fascinating account, illustrative of the invisibility of individuals whose work was central to the public performance of plantation culture." (Choice)

©2017 The University Press of Kentucky (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks

Well Researched, Needs Editing

To give this work anything less than 4 stars would be doing injustice to the content and research done. I learned a significant amount listening to this book. The author clearly did her research and expresses a connection to the subject. With that being said, her writing needs an editor. Many ideas presented were repetitive. Although I could understand how the author wanted to emphasize or tie-in certain concepts, a better job could have been done instead of repeating certain sentences over and over.

Overall, I would buy this book again and would recommend it with the warning that it can be repetitive.

Excellent content poor editing

The overall message of this book is timely and important. The book would have benefited greatly from additional editing to remove redundant content and organize thoughts more coherently. I really wish the audio book narrator would have been less monotone. Sometimes made it hard to stay engaged in what is an important topic.