Ghetto Gastro Presents Black Power Kitchen - by Jon Gray & Pierre Serrao & Lester Walker (Hardcover)

About the Book

Ghetto Gastro, a Bronx-based creative and culinary collective, delivers a highly visual manifesto for living and eating to stimulate the mind, body, and heart, in a book that promotes Black excellence through recipes, art, and thought-provoking text.

Book Synopsis

Named one of Publishers Weekly's Top 10 Cooking & Food Books for Fall 2022

Knowledge Is Power

Part cookbook. Part manifesto. Created with big Bronx energy, Black Power Kitchen combines 75 mostly plant-based, layered-with-flavor recipes with immersive storytelling, diverse voices, and striking images and photographs that celebrate Black food and Black culture, and inspire larger conversations about race, history, food inequality, and how eating well can be a pathway to personal freedom and self-empowerment.

Ghetto Gastro Presents Black Power Kitchen is the first book from the Bronx-based culinary collective, and it does for the cookbook what Ghetto Gastro has been doing for the food world in general--disrupt, expand, reinvent, and stamp it with their unique point of view. Ghetto Gastro sits at the intersection of food, music, fashion, visual arts, and social activism. They've partnered with Nike and Beats by Dre, designed cookware sold through Williams-Sonoma and Target, and won a Future of Gastronomy award from the World's 50 Best.

Now they bring their multidisciplinary approach to a cookbook, with nourishing recipes that are layered with waves of crunch, heat, flavor, and umami. They are born of the authors' cultural heritage and travels--from riffs on family dishes like Strong Back Stew and memories of Uptown with Red Velvet Cake to neighborhood icons like Triboro Tres Leches and Chopped Stease (their take on the classic bodega chopped cheese) to recipes redolent of the African diaspora like Banana Leaf Fish and King Jaffe Jollof. All made with a sense of swag.

Review Quotes

"Ghetto Gastro serves up vibrant recipes, interviews, paintings, and photographs. . . . Meals served up with ideals make this a dynamic and delicious cultural celebration."
--Publishers Weekly, Top 10 Cooking Food Books for Fall 2022

"Black Power Kitchen is as much a cooking manual as it is a manifesto of Ghetto Gastro's decade-long mission: Seeing eating as simultaneously a form of survival and a source of luxury, Black Power Kitchen frames food as a form of love, but also a weapon -- one that has long been wielded against communities like Ghetto Gastro's in the Bronx."
--Eater

"My guys have always represented our hood with their fire meals. Shouts to Ghetto Gastro, my actual Bronx neighbors, for writing a book that lets the rest of y'all know the real foods, lifestyles, and people that make our borough the best of all the boroughs. AH AH AH BX ALL DAY."
--DESUS NICE

"Challenging assumptions and subversive enlightenment are foundational to Ghetto Gastro's movement. Black Power Kitchen is a vibrant expression of creative brilliance, imagination, and the kind of cultural fluency that can be garnered only from participation, not observation."
--STEPHEN SATTERFIELD

"Black Power Kitchen is cookbook as manifesto, a look at the future of food through a perspective rarely given the platform it deserves. But don't be mistaken: it's also a fantastic culinary resource. The recipes are so delicious that I didn't even realize many of them were vegetarian or vegan. I encourage everyone to dive deep, devour, enjoy, and learn from this book."
--DAVID CHANG

"The Bronx is the world and Ghetto Gastro is our higher authority. Black Power Kitchen is a first-class culinary journey full of the beauty of life. These are the stories and recipes we need."
--MATTY MATHESON?

"Black Power Kitchen is an awakening of what Black food was, is, and can become while showcasing the pure joy and creativity Black folks have to offer. Amazing!"
--MASHAMA BAILEY

"Ghetto Gastro is a part of a movement redirecting the contemporary kitchen, tearing down walls, and breaking boundaries. Their book introduces us to a cuisine steeped in flavor; deep with power, pride, and identity; rich in history; and endowed with the power to unite people around the table."
--MASSIMO BOTTURA

"Jon, Pierre, and Lester understand that change happens through conversation, and the best way to get people talking is through good food. All the better when the plate is also nourishing, sustainable, and accessible. I admire that the recipes in this collection yield dishes that are both beautiful and subversive, encouraging people to think beyond the assemblage of ingredients that make a meal. Cooking from this book makes me feel inspired and motivated to keep learning."
--DANIEL HUMM

"Ghetto Gastro gives us incredible, unique recipes and an equal amount of powerful perspective on food philosophies. Homies are killing the game."
--TONY HAWK

"Black Power Kitchen is full of such compelling truths and it brings to light the real importance of food in our culture."
--DOMINIQUE CRENN

"The Ghetto Gastro boys from the Bronx have really interrupted the food game. They're like a band, where each one is doing something different, and I'm inspired to see them."
--MARCUS SAMUELSSON

"Ghetto Gastro has their finger on the cultural pulse, and not just on the cutting edge of cuisine, aesthetics, fashion, and lifestyle. In their debut book, they face the issues confronting their community head-on, and tackle the inequalities of the manufactured food wasteland of America with unvarnished honesty."
--DAVID GELB

About the Author

Ghetto Gastro is the Bronx-born culinary collective from Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao, and Lester Walker. The group has defined its own lane, merging food, fashion, music, art, and design. Claiming both the beauty and grit from the streets with the aspiration and aesthetics of the finer things, Ghetto Gastro's interdisciplinary approach celebrates the Bronx as a driver of global culture. The crew masterfully blends influences from the African diaspora, global South ingredients, and the pulse of hip-hop to create offerings that address race, identity, and economic empowerment.

Osayi Endolyn is a James Beard Award-winning writer, whose work explores food and identity. She's been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, Eater, Food & Wine, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and the Oxford American. She's a regular contributor to food-centered storytelling on various TV and audio platforms. Endolyn is the coauthor of the national bestseller The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food with Marcus Samuelsson.

Since launching in 2012, Ghetto Gastro has gone from hosting underground parties to spearheading large-scale brand campaigns and events with leading fashion designers, artists, and entrepreneurs. Their collaborators and partners include figures like Virgil Abloh, Nike, Cartier, the Serpentine, the Museum of Modern Art, and many more.

During the onset of the pandemic in 2020, Ghetto Gastro prioritized Bronx grassroots initiatives and mutual aid. In recognition for feeding their community, the group was nominated for the Basque Culinary World Prize. In 2021, Ghetto Gastro launched its namesake consumer goods brand of pantry items inspired by ancestral ingredients. The collective released a custom line of kitchen appliances, CRUXGG, across Target stores nationwide and a cookware line with Williams Sonoma. Follow along at @ghettogastro on Instagram.