Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor (1937-2016) was a multi-talented storyteller whose autobiographical cook book explored food, reclamation, and community.
Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor (1937-2016) was a multi-talented storyteller whose autobiographical cook book explored food, reclamation, and community.
Food has been a unifier for millennia, not just gathering people together to share a meal, but acting as a warm introduction to new histories and traditions. This February on Womanica, we’re celebrating Tastemakers - the Black chefs, cooks, and food historians who created new foodways and preserved important culinary stories of the past. The impact of chefs like Pig Foot Mary, Mama Dip, and Georgia Gilmore stretch far beyond the culinary scene - uplifting their local communities and inspiring those who came after them.
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Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
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Hi, I'm Chef Kia Damon.
I'm a Florida born chef, writer, host and recipe developer. I served as an executive Chef of New York City restaurant Lalito at the age of 24 and became Cherry Bombe magazine's first Culinary Director at 25. Since leaving I've founded Kia Feeds The People, a budding mutual aid effort. I’ll be your guest host for this month of Womanica.
This month, we're talking about Tastemakers. We're celebrating the Black chefs, cooks, and food historians who created new foodways and preserved important culinary stories of the past.
Today we’re learning about a multi-talented storyteller whose autobiographical cook book explored food, reclamation, and community.
Please welcome Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor.
Vertamae was born in Fairfax, South Carolina on April 4, 1937. When she was 10, her family moved to Philadelphia. She described her adjustment to this new place as a process of assimilation. As a teenager, Vertamae was tall, gawky and felt very out of place.
But even during this awkward time, Vertame surrounded herself with compelling people. For instance, her only friend in high school was a young girl named Eunice Waymon – who later became better known as Nina Simone.
Fresh out of high school, Vertamae moved to Paris. She was dazzled by the likes of Josephine Baker and dreamt of a life on the stage. She found the bohemian community she craved on the Left Bank, among prominent writers and artists. She often brought these people together through food. Among them was the man who would become Vertamae’s first husband: Robert Grosvenor.
Vertamae returned home to New York City when she was 23 years old. Soon after, she gave birth to her first child. She and Robert separated shortly thereafter. A few years later, Vertamae gave birth to her second child. She raised her daughters on the Lower East Side where they would wake up to the smell of coffee and a delicious breakfast wafting from the kitchen.
Vertamae also nourished her community. She cooked for the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast program, and when she met people through public performance and acting, she invited them to dinner. James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, and Nikki Giovanni were among those who ate at her table and became a part of her circle.
Vertamae’s cuisine expanded beyond the southern food she grew up eating. “My kitchen was the world, ” she later wrote in an introduction to her seminal book, Vibration Cooking. Or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl.
Vibration Cooking was a cookbook, but it was also part poetry, folktale, and culinary anthropology. In the book, Vertamae doesn’t give readers explicit instruction, nor does she outline recipes in terms of cups and teaspoons. She explained the title this way: “When I cook, I never measure or weigh anything; I cook by vibration. I can tell by the look and smell of it.”
She also made a point to claim the term ‘Geechee’ in the title, which refers to the Gullah-Geechee people of South Carolina and Georgia. . The book captures her many influences, from her world travels to the recipes she inherited from friends.
It was unlike any major cookbook at the time. Vertamae was a pioneer of food writing as we know it today: personal, political, and poetic. Vibration Cooking became a cult classic.
In the 1980s, Vertamae became a regular contributor to NPR, making radio features about food and travel. Throughout her career she also acted on stage and screen, and hosted a TV show on public television called: “The Americas’ Family Kitchen With Vertamae Grosvenor”.
Whenever she cooked, Vertamae emphasized the importance of care and intention going into the each dish. This was how she made her food nourishing.
Vertamae died on September 3, 2016. She was 79 years old.
All month, we’re talking about tastemakers. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan, for having me as a guest host.
Talk to you tomorrow!