A groundbreaking collection of essays about food and its powerful link to identity, culture and community, from twenty exciting voices around the world.

We hear about a family ritual of drying mango and pickling limes in India, and the search for a father’s favourite hotdog in North Carolina. We investigate Latino food in cinema and vegetarianism in Buddhist diets, the cultural appropriation of Chinese food and the effect of gentrification on Black communities. And, we learn about the grassroots organisations fighting for change, for equality for farmers and for better mental health provisions in kitchens, where toxicity and microaggressions are rife.

Edited by chef and activist Zoe Adjonyoh, and featuring a foreword by acclaimed author and broadcaster Yasmin Khan, Serving Up is an electric, urgent anthology campaigning for representation around our dinner tables, wherever that dinner table may be. 

Includes essays from: Abigail Koffler, Apoorva Sripathi, Chris Nigro, Cynthia Greenlee, Duron Chavis, Fatima Tarkleman, Hassel Aviles, Izzie Ramirez, Lee Tran Lam, Lenore Adkins and others.

‘A must read’ 

‘A smörgåsbord of insightful and eclectic food writing . . . It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make you hungry, and best of all, it will make you think’ 

‘I found it a stimulating, thought-provoking read and welcomed the opportunity to hear from fresh voices’ 

‘Serving Up’s informed writing peels the skin off our surface-level obsession with what we eat’

Zoe Adjonyoh has been cooking up consciousness since 2010. She is an author, entrepreneur and empowerment coach and has spent thirteen years in the hospitality industry focusing on food justice and female empowerment. 

As the chef and founder of the West African food brand and cookbook Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen, Zoe pioneered West African cuisine globally. Through her activism with Black Book Global, she led the conversation on decolonising the food industry.

She has previously spoken at TedX and lectured at institutions including Harvard, the Culinary Institute of America, and The Omega Institute. She was formerly the Director of the Women’s Leadership programmes at the James Beard Foundation.