The Inspiration Behind and Impact of BIPOC Culinary Festivals

James Beard Award–winning chef and writer Kwame Onwuachi recently took to Instagram to reflect on the name of his popular food festival, The Family Reunion. “Family reunions were originally used to find lost family members after emancipation. To bring us back into the fold, reconnect with long lost family, and meet the new. This is more than a food event, it’s a revival of the spirit,” he wrote.

Chef Kwame’s event is part of a growing number of food festivals that aim to uplift the BIPOC community. These festivals are created and led by BIPOC chefs themselves, offering opportunities that they craved early on in their own careers to the current generation.

“The chefs participating come from all over,” says James Beard Foundation’s vice president of Community, Colleen Vincent. “They highlight community, but also build community.”

Vincent notes that BIPOC food festivals are “an opportunity for the chefs, winemakers, mixologists, and food-adjacent folks to network and build fellowship via the industry.” She adds, “a lot of these festivals are geared toward people new in the industry, so they [can] recognize that people who look like them have had success in this field.”

Chef Aminah “Mimi” Robinson-Briscoe, founder of the Black Food & Wine Experience (BFWE) in California’s Bay Area, has been working in the food and beverage industry for over 25 years. “[Along] my journey, I didn't see a lot of diversity,” she says. “I was going to food shows and wine events and I would be, like, the only Black person there,” she adds.

The desire to create an event centering the Black community led chef Mimi to organize the first BFWE in 2016. That year, there were just 100 attendees—but now, there are thousands. Chef Mimi is proud of the $2.5 million impact her event had on the Bay Area this year, from bringing revenue to local  hotels, restaurants, and bars to sales  of merchandise and goods.

The experience now includes a Food & Wine Industry Summit led by Vincent, a dinner honoring the legacy of Black Wall Street, and programming showcasing connections to other cultures. Last year’s event included programming honoring the #StopAsianHate movement, while this year’s told the story of Afro–Latinx food and Black and Latin American solidarity. “Building something like this is about how we [can] strengthen Black people in the industry,” says chef Mimi. “[There’s] a legacy that happens past the event.”

For chef Mimi, part of that legacy includes partnering with local organizations. Portions of event proceeds go toward the Marcus Foster Education Institute, an organization that supports at-risk Black boys in Oakland, as well as the culinary arts program at Diablo Valley College.  

In New Hampshire, four-time James Beard Award semifinalist chef David Vargas hosts the New England BIPOC Fest. In its first year, the event included 22 tents of local BIPOC restaurants and businesses—this September, there will be 60. “We’ve been super blessed. We’re trying not to stop,” he says. “The community outreach the event has throughout New England has been incredible. This year alone, we've been able to raise over $30,000 in sponsorships. [This] money goes to all the BIPOC nonprofits that [perform] and restaurants that provide food.”

This year’s participants range from the small volunteer-run community organization NH PANTHER (Plymouth Area Network To Help End Racism), to the Black Womxn in New Hampshire Social Club, to Foodies Without Borders.

Chef David has also added an educational stage that will be hosted by Vincent. This year, there will be a “Chef’s Talk” segment featuring two-time James Beard Award winner Sean Sherman, co-owner of indigenous catering and education business, The Sioux Chef, and Twin Cities–based journalist and chef Mecca Bos. “They will carry out a discussion on Black and Indigenous intersections in American history and food,” says chef David.

Meanwhile, in Charlotte, North Carolina, James Beard Award–nominated chef Greg Collier and his wife and business partner Subrina are currently preparing for one of their most meaningful shared ventures: the third annual BayHaven Food & Wine Festival. The Colliers—who named the festival after their shared roots in Memphis, specifically their neighborhoods The Bay and Whitehaven—describe the festival as a “natural progression” from their pop-up dinner series, Soul Food Sessions.  

The aspiration to create a Black food and wine festival weighed a lot on Subrina’s heart after seeing a lack of representation in Southern festivals. “Even here in Charlotte, they would do their wine and food festival and have, like, one Black chef. As opposed to asking somebody to include us, [we decided to] just do our own,” she says. “It’s fellowship...It’s like homecoming for Black chefs.”

The Colliers have been intentional about tapping into their local community and hosting events at historically Black sites. This year’s festival will include a community feast celebrating the West Side of Charlotte, a symposium hosted at Charlotte’s Johnson and Wales University campus featuring a meal prepared by the school’s culinary students and a plated dinner at Charlotte’s Community Matters Café. A portion of the dinner’s proceeds will go toward the café’s mission of assisting individuals recovering from substance abuse and homelessness.

“[I want to see] Black people doing whatever they want to do at the highest level and nobody having a question about it,” says chef Greg. “I want to make it easier for whoever is coming after me. There's a certain freedom that comes with being the second person,” he adds. “We want the festival to be about community—local, regional, and global.”     

In writing about the history of his festival, chef Kwame described The Family Reunion as “the event that gets me out of bed to plan day after day throughout the year.” Luckily for their communities and for all of us, the Colliers, chef Mimi, chef David, and the other dedicated culinarians hosting and participating in these festivals share this sentiment.

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Jessica Kehinde Ngo is a memoirist and JBF Legacy Network alum. She currently teaches writing and food memoir at Otis College of Art & Design.