Dining Services celebrates history with our annual Soul Food Dinner. Featuring traditional comfort foods such as fried chicken, collard greens, macaroni & cheese, chitterlings and more. Members of the general public are invited to dine in the Commons and partake in a mouthwatering taste experience. Dinner service begins at 4:30 pm and end at 7:30 pm.
Soul food is one of the most popular and recognizable types of cooking coming out of the United States. For centuries, Black Americans have passed on hearty, sumptuous recipes that have marked many a special occasion.
If you’re like me, you’re a sucker for soul food. The mere idea of fried chicken, collard greens, and cornbread is enough to make my mouth water. But most of us spend more time drooling over soul food than thinking about it.
Soul food takes its origins mostly from Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama, a collection of states commonly referred to as the Deep South. During the Transatlantic Slave Trade, enslaved African people were given meager food rations that were low in quality and nutritional value. With these rations, enslaved people preserved African food traditions and adapted traditional recipes with the resources available. Over time, these recipes and techniques have become the soul food dishes we are familiar with today. This food genre, now associated with comfort and decadence, was born out of struggle and survival.
Soul food has a rich and important history that ties Black culture to its African roots, and that history is deeply reflected in the staple recipes and techniques. In soul food cooking, there are four key ingredients that establish a historical link to America’s dark slavery past and the African cultures that the enslaved carried with them.