Soul Kitchen Summary

New Orleans is a city well known for its culture and flavor that is unlike anything any other city can offer. It boasts a variety of traditions, cultures, music and most importantly, food. Soul Kitchen by Poppy Z. Brite contributes to the New Orleans flavor by highlighting the food aspect of the culture. Soul Kitchen illustrates how food is not only an important part of New Orleans but is part of the soul of the city, hence the title. While many are not as well versed in the culinary field as Brite is, the uneducated reader will still understand the importance of the food to the story and theme. The niche of putting alcohol in food at Liquor demonstrates how anything could happen in New Orleans. If any other city were to try putting alcohol in every single food they served, it would be deemed crazy. New Orleans is just open to any sort of gimmick and is willing to try it. The fact that Liquor was able to successfully take off and stay in business goes to show how much New Orleanians love their alcohol. Even though it is
Milford and Rickey both talk about how they started getting into cooking because of their family. Milford says, “‘… what I really love is soul food. Learned to cook it from my grandmomma’” (42) which shows how tightly knit his family and his cooking background are. Rickey also explains, “‘Yeah, my mom taught me to cook. She’s Italian, so I was making lasagna, stuffed eggplant, all that wop shit way before I ever set foot in any fancy kitchen’” (43). Milford also knows a bunch of cornbread recipes which was passed down through generations in his family, which further indicates how important cooking was to families. Many of the cooks in Liquor learned how to cook from their families, or have special recipes that have been passed down through generations. They valued their family traditions and considered cooking as a crucial aspect and something to pass on to their