In a nice coincidence, right after reading Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice that I reviewed here, [amazon][bookshop] my other book club chose High on the Hog [amazon] [bookshop] as their pick for the month.
I just finished up the book (haven't seen the Netflix series yet but will watch next month- having only heard the title, I thought both were cookbooks/cooking shows instead of history book/show) and it's super interesting.
One thing I noticed in Juke Joints was how often the author mentioned caterers and their recipes for food and drink. In reading lots of cocktail history I hadn't come across caterers that I can recall. So I made a mental note of it.
In High on the Hog, the author explains a little better why caterers were often Black businesses- coming off of domestic work skills and training but lacking the capital to open restaurants.
It was nice to have a question and then get it answered in the next book.
Here are a couple of pages from High on the Hog in which I got my answers. It's worth reading High on the Hog in full though – it looks like the overlapping history of food and Black history in America.
