COLUMBIA — When Kevin Mitchell was growing up in New Jersey, he didn't think twice about the Southern food his grandmother would cook. "At six years old, I was like, 'It's delicious. My granny's making it and I'm going to eat it,'" said Mitchell, the first Black chef and instructor at the Culinary Institute of Charleston and a 2020-21 South Carolina Chef Ambassador .
"But the move to Charleston really opened up this chasm for me to understand that the food that my grandmother was cooking is very important." From chicken bog and shrimp and grits to boiled peanuts and benne wafers, many of South Carolina's signature dishes have roots across the African continent and began to make their way over to the Palmetto State during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which saw the forced transportation and enslavement of over 12.5 million African people, along with arms, textiles and African agricultural imports, for more than 200 years.
By the numbers, South Carolina was a leader in the slave trade, with approximately 100,000 enslaved people being forcibly transported and brought to ports here during this traumatic period in United States history. With the Transatlantic Slave Trade came the introduction of countless African agricultural products to Southern soil. While some of these imports were unable to survive in the American climate, environment and economy, many survived and became the backbone of Southern food.
These ingredients remain an undeniable part of the American culinary can.
