Location: Graham Auditorium
Registration is required.

Black cooks and chefs have made significant contributions to Maryland’s culinary history. Although many Black cooks were not publicly celebrated for their culinary innovations during their lifetimes, two Marylanders are changing the narrative and ensuring their recognition.

In this program, Tonya Thomas, chef and co-owner of H3irloom Food Group, and food historian Joyce White, author of the forthcoming book Cooking Maryland’s Way: Voices of a Diverse Cuisine, uplift the recipes and histories of enslaved and free cooks who worked in kitchens across Maryland prior to the Civil War. Individuals like Sybby Grant, an enslaved cook who lived in the 19th century, is one of many talents who will be featured in White’s forthcoming book. Grant lived at 1 West Mount Vernon Place, a residence converted to galleries that now house some of the Walters’ collections. They will be joined by Dr. Joanna Gohmann, Provenance Researcher and Object Historian at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, whose research as the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow at the Walters from 2016-2019 expanded knowledge about Grant during the time when she lived in the building. John-John Williams IV, a diversity, equity, and inclusion reporter at The Baltimore Banner, will moderate this conversation.

Grant will also be honored in a special dinner presented by the H3irloom Food Group at the Walters on June 29. Attendees will be able to preorder White’s book and register for the dinner at this program, which is presented in honor of Juneteenth.

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About the Speaker

Joyce White’s work as a food historian began in her career as a museum educator attempting to accurately interpret historic meals, table-settings, and kitchens where she also learned to cook on the open hearth. In Maryland, Joyce is the foodways consultant for the c. 1801 Riversdale House Museum in Riverdale Park, and consulted in the restoration of the 18th-century kitchen at Annapolis’s William Paca House. Joyce also presents food history lectures, creates historically accurate faux foods, and has been featured as a food history expert on various television shows such as State Plate with Taylor Hicks, Eatin’ the Chesapeake: The Five Feasts for MPT, and CBS News Sunday Morning. Joyce can be found at her website, atasteofhistory.net, and on Facebook at A Taste of History with Joyce White.

Tonya Thomas is a chef and entrepreneur from Baltimore who has always worked to combine her love of food, family, and community with culture and tradition. Tonya has been in the industry for over 25 years and has operated a catering company and opened and operated several nationally recognized and award-winning restaurants alongside her husband, David Thomas. Their aim is to reclaim the narrative around African American cooking and soul food traditions, sharing this legacy, and being part of its evolution. Today, her work continues to extend beyond the kitchen with TasteWise Kids, an organization that offers food education to children in Maryland to inspire a lifetime of healthy eating habits, as well as the Muloma Heritage Project in St. Helena Island, SC.

In March 2020, Tonya and her husband stepped away from award-winning Ida B’s Table to start H3irloom Food Group with Floyd and Linda Taliaferro of the Maesner Group. H3irloom Food Group includes catering, dining experiences, products, food, restaurant concepts, and a 68-acre farm in Upperco, MD. Playing a critical role in all of H3irloom’s culinary endeavors, Tonya is the principal of Nostalgia Baking Company.

Tonya has cooked at the James Beard House, JBF Platform, Bayhaven Food & Wine Festival, Charleston Wine & Food, and The Family Reunion Food & Wine Salamander Collection; traveled with well-known chefs to Senegal and Cameroon; presented at SXSW 2022; participated in JBF Chef Bootcamp in 2021 and 2023; and was a JBF Legacy Advisor 2022, and James Beard WEL Alum 2022.

Dr. Joanna M. Gohmann leads the provenance program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. She conducts provenance research across collection areas and manages ongoing collaboration with Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz’s Museum of Asian Art and Central Archives, co-organizing research exchanges, most notably the webinar series Hidden Networks: The Trade of Asian Art (2020–22). Gohmann integrates provenance stories into the museum’s web and gallery presence, including the exhibition Freer’s Global Network: Artists, Collectors, Dealers.

About the Moderator

John-John Williams IV is a diversity, equity and inclusion reporter at The Baltimore Banner. A native of Syracuse, N.Y. and a graduate of Howard University, he has lived in Baltimore for the past 17 years. He has worked for The Baltimore Sun, The Times-Picayune and The Argus Leader. His work has appeared in The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, The Kansas City Star and The Post Standard.