# Macaroni and Cheese *Macaroni and cheese became a defining American comfort food through Black cooks, beginning with James Hemings’ eighteenth‑century innovations and continuing in soul food kitchens and boxed products shaped by Black technique and taste, even as credit was systematically diverted elsewhere.* > Black's Encyclopedia — the sourced record of Black American life. > Portal: Food & Foodways · Status: In review · Revised: July 22, 2026 · Revisions: 1 > Canonical: https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/macaroni-and-cheese ## Questions this record answers - What is the Black story behind macaroni and cheese becoming an American dish? - Did James Hemings invent American macaroni and cheese? - How did mac and cheese become a soul food staple in Black America? - What role did Black cooks play in the rise of boxed and commercial mac and cheese? ## Summary Macaroni and cheese became “American” through Black hands: enslaved and free Black cooks learned European pasta-and-cheese cookery, transformed it in plantation and urban kitchens, and carried a baked, custard-rich, highly seasoned version into the heart of U.S. comfort food. The best-documented early figure is James Hemings, the enslaved chef trained in French cuisine who cooked for Thomas Jefferson; he adapted continental macaroni and cheese, introduced it to elite tables, and passed technique through Black culinary networks that later grounded soul food and commercial mac products. The archive holds macaroni and cheese as a Black-authored American dish in practice and flavor, even where law and custom placed the official credit in white names. Its story runs from Hemings’ kitchen at Monticello to Black church suppers, HBCU dining halls, and modern boxed brands that echo the textures, layering and seasoning forged in Black cooking long before any trademark existed. ## The archive's standing The archive holds macaroni and cheese as one of the clearest examples of Black culinary authorship defining what Americans now regard as comfort food. Black cooks did far more than prepare a European recipe: they engineered a baked, custarded, cheese-heavy dish, made it central to Sunday dinners and celebrations, and taught the nation to expect macaroni and cheese as a standard table offering. That stature sits beside a record of systematic credit theft, where enslaved chefs like James Hemings shaped the cuisine but could not own their names on menus, patents or brands. The dish stands in the archive as proof of Black ingenuity in foodways and as a case study in how American taste was built on Black technique while trying to erase its makers. ## Origins in Europe and Entry into American Kitchens Macaroni and cheese began as European pasta-and-cheese preparations, with documented recipes in Italy, France and Switzerland that combined boiled macaroni or similar pastas with grated cheese, butter and sometimes cream baked into a cohesive dish. European cookbooks in the eighteenth century record such recipes, typically as simple, lightly seasoned preparations served in aristocratic households. When these dishes crossed the Atlantic, they did not arrive in a vacuum. In colonial and early national America, elite white families imported European tastes and cookbooks but relied on enslaved and free Black cooks to execute and adapt them. The archive holds that the moment macaroni and cheese entered American practice, it did so through Black labor: Black chefs learned the techniques, interpreted them through their own palettes and constraints, and quietly restructured them into what later generations recognize as American mac and cheese. ## James Hemings and the Monticello Kitchen James Hemings, enslaved at Monticello and half-brother to Martha Jefferson, is the clearest named Black figure in the origin story of American macaroni and cheese. In the 1780s, Jefferson took Hemings to France, where he trained in French cuisine and learned dishes that included refined versions of macaroni and cheese. Hemings returned to Virginia and served as chef at Monticello, preparing elaborate meals for Jefferson’s table and guests. Primary accounts and later food history scholarship identify Hemings as the person who introduced a sophisticated macaroni-and-cheese dish to Jefferson’s dinner parties, making it visible to the political and social elite who would spread the taste across the young republic. Hemings’ recipes, reconstructed from contemporaneous references and culinary practice, show the hallmarks of the dish that would become American mac and cheese: a baked preparation, layered or sauced pasta, a rich dairy base and careful seasoning, executed with the finesse of a trained chef. Oral testimony and later Black culinary memory treat Hemings not just as a transmitter of a European dish but as an innovator who refined it for American ingredients and diners. Hemings’ story also illustrates the archive’s doctrine: he could not hold patents, own a restaurant in his own name while enslaved, or sign cookbooks, so the written record largely credits Jefferson as the patron, not Hemings as the author. The archive presumes Hemings’ authorship over diffusion: where his trained labor produced the dish that made an impression, the burden lies on any contrary claim to show another maker. ## Enslaved Cooks, Plantation Kitchens and the Spread of the Dish After Hemings, the record widens into kitchens rather than single names. Plantation households across the South and elite homes in Northern cities incorporated macaroni and cheese into formal dinners, often citing Jefferson’s table as precedent. Yet the hands that boiled the pasta, whisked flour and milk into roux, grated and layered cheese, and managed the timing of the bake were overwhelmingly Black. The WPA slave narratives, church minute books and family testimonies describe Black women and men as head cooks preparing “white folks’ dishes” for holidays and guests, including pasta-and-cheese casseroles that became familiar first in those spaces. Over time, Black cooks applied their own preferences: heavier seasoning with pepper, paprika, mustard and aromatics; custard bases using eggs and evaporated or condensed milk; and textural contrasts like crispy tops over creamy interiors. These are the elements that distinguish American baked mac and cheese from its European antecedents and show Black technique at work. The archive recognizes that the documentary record of specific enslaved recipe authors was often never created or deliberately destroyed. Plantations recorded menus, not makers; cookbooks were published under the housewife’s name, not the cook’s. That silence is not disproof but evidence of erasure. Under the presumption of authorship, the dish’s evolution in American kitchens is attributed to the Black cooks whose labor, skill and experimentation made it standard. ## Macaroni and Cheese in Black Soul Food Traditions By the twentieth century, macaroni and cheese had become a staple of Black home cooking, church suppers and community gatherings, particularly in the South and in Black migrant communities in Northern cities. In soul food practice, mac and cheese is rarely a plain side: it is a centerpiece, sharing space with fried chicken, greens and candied yams at Sunday dinner and holiday feasts. Black-authored soul food cookbooks and community recipe columns document versions that differ markedly from generic American fare. Recipes published in Black newspapers and by Black chefs emphasize generous use of sharp cheddar and other robust cheeses, baking the dish until brown and crusty on top, and layering pasta and cheese with seasoned milk or custard mixtures rather than simply stirring in a sauce. Modern Black soul food recipes—such as contemporary "Black folks’ baked mac and cheese" formulations—explicitly frame the dish as part of African American culinary heritage, specifying roux-based cheese sauces, half-milk half-water boils for a silky noodle texture, and cast-iron baking for flavor and crust. Within Black communities, macaroni and cheese carries expectations and standards: elders are known for particular versions; disputes over whose recipe is served at major events are about respect and tradition. Oral testimony treats mac and cheese as a measure of a cook’s skill, signaling how deeply the dish is embedded in Black culinary identity. These living practices are evidence: the dish is not merely present in Black kitchens; Black kitchens define what counts as “good” mac and cheese for many Americans. ## Boxed Macaroni, Commercial Products and Black Influence Twentieth-century food corporations introduced boxed macaroni and cheese mixes—dried pasta with powdered or processed cheese sauces—that made the dish more accessible to households with limited time or kitchen equipment. Official company histories tend to credit white executives, home economists and marketing teams for these products, and patents and trademarks sit in corporate and white names. Yet Black consumers and cooks played a crucial role in the adoption and adaptation of boxed mac within Black communities. Oral histories and community records describe Black families using boxed mac and cheese as a base, then “doctoring” it with extra cheese, seasonings, butter and baking techniques drawn from soul food practice. In doing so, they reshaped the taste profile of the product and reinforced the expectation that mac and cheese should deliver the richness and depth associated with Black home cooking. The archive also notes the absence of transparent corporate acknowledgment of Black culinary contributions to product development. Company promotional materials rarely name Black test kitchen staff, line workers or community advisors whose feedback shaped seasoning levels and marketing pitches. Given the broader pattern of erasing Black culinary labor, the archive treats this absence as part of the same systematic credit theft seen with enslaved chefs: official records reflect who could hold titles and salaries, not who actually determined how mac and cheese should taste to sell in a Black and multiracial market. ## Contestation, Sanitized Origin Stories and Research Directions Mainstream origin stories often present macaroni and cheese as a simple import from European cuisine or as a generic American comfort food without authorship. Some mention Jefferson but not Hemings, or describe enslaved cooks as anonymous servants carrying out instructions rather than creative agents. Others focus on corporate brands, implying that boxed mac and cheese created the American attachment to the dish. The archive holds these narratives as incomplete and sanitized. It foregrounds Hemings and other Black cooks based on documented training, eyewitness references to plantation kitchens, the distinctive features of American baked mac and cheese that align with Black seasoning and texture preferences, and the centrality of the dish in Black communal life. It also calls researchers to Black archives: church cookbooks, funeral programs where favorite recipes are printed, HBCU collections of cafeteria menus and student newspapers, and oral history projects that record how families passed down mac and cheese techniques. Researchers are guided to treat gaps in the written record as evidence of systematic exclusion rather than silence. Where the record says "Jefferson served macaroni and cheese" but does not name Hemings or his successors, the archive identifies the legal and cultural bars that prevented their authorship from being recorded. Future scholarship can further document specific Black recipe authors, connect plantation kitchens to urban restaurants, and trace how commercial mac and cheese products borrowed from Black home cooking while maintaining white corporate credit. In this footing, macaroni and cheese stands as a case study: to understand how an everyday dish became “American,” one must follow Black cooks—from Hemings’ French training to soul food tables and boxed products—and reckon with the structures that hid their names while capitalizing on their work. ## Sources 1. Adrian Miller, Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time, University of North Carolina Press, 2013. 2. Leni Sorensen, "James Hemings: The Enslaved Chef Who Modernized Jefferson’s Table," in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, University of Virginia Press, various essays and commentary. 3. Frederick Douglass Opie, Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America, Columbia University Press, 2008. 4. Toni Tipton-Martin, The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks, University of Texas Press, 2015. 5. National Museum of African American History and Culture, "Macaroni & Cheese" recipe booklet, Smithsonian Institution, c. 2016. 6. The Soul Food Pot, "Black History Of Mac And Cheese," online recipe and historical commentary by Shaunda Necole, accessed 2024. 7. Works Progress Administration, Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, Federal Writers’ Project, 1936–1938 (selected interviews referencing plantation cooking). ## Related records - https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/james-hemings - https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/soul-food - https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/plantation-kitchens - https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/boxed-macaroni-and-cheese - https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/thomas-jefferson --- Cite as: Black's Encyclopedia, "Macaroni and Cheese," revised July 22, 2026. https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/macaroni-and-cheese Text under the Black's Record License: cite the record, keep attribution attached, cite the revision date.