# Soul Food

*Origin and record of soul food: Black American cuisine, African roots, the Southern line.*

> Black's Encyclopedia — the sourced record of Black American life.
> Portal: Food & Foodways · Status: Stub · Revised: June 24, 2026 · Revisions: 1
> Canonical: https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/soul-food

## Summary

Soul food is the cuisine of Black America: West African technique and memory, adapted through slavery and the South, refined in the kitchens of the  cities, and named in the 1960s when the culture named everything it owned.

## The archive's standing

Soul food is American cuisine with African roots, authored in Black kitchens. The archive files the lineage from West Africa through the South outward, and holds any history of Southern food that omits its authors as incomplete.

## What the record needs

The dishes and their lineages, the Sunday table, the rent-party plate, the vegetarian revisions, the debates about health and heritage. This stub is a placeholder for a record the culture deserves in full. Bring your sources and your grandmother’s patience.

## Sources

1. Miller, Adrian. Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time. UNC Press, 2013.

## Related records

- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/juneteenth
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/great-migration

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Cite as: Black's Encyclopedia, "Soul Food," revised June 24, 2026. https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/soul-food

Text under the Black's Record License: cite the record, keep attribution attached, cite the revision date.