Ghetto Gastro Black Power Kitchen

Named a Best Cookbook of 2022 by Barnes & Noble

Named a Best Cookbook of Fall 2022 by Food & Wine, Forbes, Philadelphia Inquirer, Publishers Weekly, The Takeout, and more

An American Library Association CODES Essential Cookbook of the Year

Shortlisted for The Art of Eating Prize

＂This year’s most important cookbook.＂
--Vogue

＂Every recipe comes with an immersive story, bringing you closer to the intent behind the dish.＂
--The Strategist, The Year’s Most Giftable Coffee-Table Books

＂Featuring vibrant recipes, interviews, art, and photography, this is a compelling culinary manifesto about the nature of Black food. . . . Ghetto Gastro offers an awakening of what Black food was, is, and can become while demonstrating the sheer joy and creativity Black communities generate. With waves of crunch, heat, flavor, and umami, this Bronx culinary collective also inspires discussions about race, history, and long-standing food inequality.＂
--Food & Wine

Knowledge Is Power

Part cookbook. Part manifesto. Created with big Bronx energy, Black Power Kitchen combines 75 mostly plant-based, layered-with-flavor recipes with immersive storytelling, diverse voices, and striking images and photographs that celebrate Black food and Black culture, and inspire larger conversations about race, history, food inequality, and how eating well can be a pathway to personal freedom and self-empowerment.

Ghetto Gastro Presents Black Power Kitchen is the first book from the Bronx-based culinary collective, and it does for the cookbook what Ghetto Gastro has been doing for the food world in general--disrupt, expand, reinvent, and stamp it with their unique point of view. Ghetto Gastro sits at the intersection of food, music, fashion, visual arts, and social activism. They’ve partnered with Nike and Beats by Dre, designed cookware sold through Williams-Sonoma and Target, and won a Future of Gastronomy award from the World’s 50 Best.

Now they bring their multidisciplinary approach to a cookbook, with nourishing recipes that are layered with waves of crunch, heat, flavor, and umami. They are born of the authors’ cultural heritage and travels--from riffs on family dishes like Strong Back Stew and memories of Uptown with Red Velvet Cake to neighborhood icons like Triboro Tres Leches and Chopped Stease (their take on the classic bodega chopped cheese) to recipes redolent of the African diaspora like Banana Leaf Fish and King Jaffe Jollof. All made with a sense of swag.

Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao, and Lester Walker are the Bronx-born creative and culinary collective known as Ghetto Gastro, defining their own lane that transcends food, art, music, fashion, and design. Through immersive culinary experiences and storytelling, they spark larger conversations around inclusion, race, and economic empowerment. The Bronx is part of the team’s lifeblood, and every piece of the GG universe is meant to uplift and celebrate the borough and other places like it as unsung drivers of global culture.

Since its founding in 2012, the collective’s work to explore global food traditions through the lens of the African diaspora has included partnerships with artist Virgil Abloh, model Naomi Campbell, Nike (with the Ghetto Gastro Air Jordan), Williams Sonoma, Cartier, the Serpentine Galleries, the Museum of Modern Art, and many others, including Beats by Dr. Dre (the Ghetto Gastro headphones sold out in 48 hours). In 2021, Ghetto Gastro was nominated for the Basque Culinary World Prize for their work feeding their community during the pandemic. In October 2021, Ghetto Gastro will release a custom line of kitchen appliances and kitchenware at Target stores across the country. They are also producing a forthcoming television series--all while continuing to bring the Bronx to the world and the world to the Bronx. Follow along at @ghettogastro on Instagram.