Ep. 21 • Bryant Terry
Bryant Terry joins Michele at his University of California Berkeley art studio to discuss one of the biggest influences behind all of his work: his grandmother Margie Bryant—or as his family affectionately called her, Ma’dear. In Ma’dear’s Memphis, Tennessee kitchen, Bryant spent hours helping her shell peas, peel potatoes, or pour sugar into the pot for her sweet fruit preserves. It was in her kitchen that Bryant learned how Ma’dear’s love for her family came in the form of what she made there, and it's that love that stays with Bryant today.
When Bryant is not penning one of his acclaimed cookbooks, he is touring the country, educating Americans about the ways in which our food system is broken, how we as consumers can make choices that help local producers and farmers get the resources they need to continue their valuable work, and about what many of us often get wrong about Black Food—a cuisine that is far more varied, healthy, and complex than many people are led to believe.
In this episode, Bryant recounts how a very specific ‘90s hip-hop song led him to veganism, shares his recipe for Ma’dear’s savory, slow-cooked leafy greens, and sings the haunting, beautiful song Ma’dear would sing as she cooked them down until they were meltingly tender.
Bryant Terry is a chef, food justice activist, conceptual artist, publisher, and author of five cookbooks, including Vegetable Kingdom, for which he won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, and Black Food, one of the most critically acclaimed cookbooks of 2021. In 2015, he won a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award for his work in food justice. He’s currently pursuing an MFA at University of California Berkeley and lives in the Bay Area with his wife and two daughters.
