Staff

Brandi Neuwirth

Director, Archive of Black Food and Culture

Brandi Neuwirth is the Director of the Archive of Black Food and Culture at Muloma Heritage Center. She has worked extensively as an arts administrator, curator, producer, and food writer specializing in African-Atlantic Foodways. Brandi served as Culinary Producer on Season 2 of High on the Hog, the award-winning and James Beard-nominated Netflix show. Her byline has appeared in Bon Appétit, Epicurious, Parade and The Bon Appétit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook. Previously, Brandi was the Associate Photo Editor at Bon Appétit, and worked in entertainment as a creator and producer for DreamWorks and acquisitions executive for 20th Century Studios.

Michael Twitty

Michael W. Twitty is a culinary historian and food writer from the Washington D.C. area. He blogs at Afroculinaria.com. He’s appeared on Bizarre Foods America with Andrew Zimmern, Many Rivers to Cross with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, and has lectured to over 412 groups. He has served as a judge for the James Beard Awards and is a fellow with the Southern Foodways Alliance and TED and was the first Revolutionary in Residence at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Southern Living named Twitty, one of Fifty People Changing the South and the Root.com added him to their 100 most influential African Americans under 45. Beyonce beat him out as number one. He also made the Jewish Forwards list of most influential American Jews. HarperCollins released Twitty’s The Cooking Gene, in 2017, tracing his ancestry through food from Africa to America and from slavery to freedom, a finalist for The Kirkus Prize and The Art of Eating Prize and a third place winner of Barnes & Noble’s Discover New Writer’s Awards in Nonfiction. THE COOKING GENE WON the 2018 James Beard Award for best writing as well as book of the year, making him the first Black author so awarded. His piece on visiting Ghana in Bon Appetit will be included in Best Food Writing in 2019 and was nominated for a 2019 James Beard Award. His ancestry hails from across West, Central and Southeast Africa; but his roots in Sierra Leone and nearby Liberia are Mende, Temne, Fula, Mandinka, and Loma.