2026-02-01
41 分钟Hello and welcome to Meet the Writers, I'm Georgina Godwin.
My guest today has lived several remarkable lives.
Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina,
he trained as a baritone toward the great opera houses of Europe and won both a Grammy and a Tony for Porgy and Bess before walking away from the stage at the height of his career.
He reinvented himself in New York,
where his legendary dinner parties grew into restaurants that helped shape a new understanding of Southern and Afro-Diosporic cooking.
Between Harlem and Heaven won him a James Beard Award, Meals,
Music and Muses explored the soundtrack behind Black American food culture,
and his newest book, The Contemporary African Kitchen,
gathers recipes and stories from cooks across the continent.
And the project that brings all of those strands together is Elka Bulan,
the African dining hall he created for Dubai's Expo,
the first of its kind anywhere in the world, a sprawling celebratory showcase of African cuisines,
and a platform for chefs whose stories deserve a global stage.
A life in music, a life in food, a life in books,
and now a mission to centre African culinary heritage where it belongs.
Alexander Smalls Welcome to meet the writers.
Thank you so much.
Happy to be here.
We are in your absolutely extraordinary apartment.