Benjamin Dennis IV | |
|---|---|
| Born | Charleston  |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Chef, traiteur |
Benjamin "BJ" Dennis IV is an American Gullah Geechee chef and caterer from Charleston, South Carolina who is known for preserving Gullah Geechee cooking and culture. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Additionally, he is also notable for his discovery of hill rice in December 2016 in Trinidad, which was thought to have been extinct. [1]
Dennis was born in West Ashley, South Carolina. [7] [6] [8] Dennis has two siblings. [5] Dennis started to learn about cooking from watching and helping his mother and grandparents. [5] [9] He studied at the College of Charleston for one year. [5] He then transferred to Trident Technical College and got a job at Hyman's Seafood. [5] It was at Trident that Dennis changed his major to culinary arts. [5] He later worked as a cook for 82 Queen, Anson's, and Hank's Seafood. [5] In 2004, Dennis traveled to Saint Thomas to work as a cook. [5] [9] In 2011, he became the opening chef at the Cocktail Club. [5] Dennis started a pop-up café in 2012 called "Butcher & Bee" in Charleston, South Carolina. [10]
On March 6, 2015, the Southern Foodways Alliance recorded Dennis' oral history focusing on his Gullah Geechee cooking and culture. [8] In December 2016, he made the discovery of hill rice growing in Trinidad, which was once thought to be extinct. [1]
In 2020, Dennis, Michael Twitty and others were featured in the 4th episode of Padma Lakshmi's show Taste the Nation with Padma Lashmi, which focused on Gullah cuisine. [11]
In 2021, Dennis was featured on Netflix's series High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America. [5] One of Dennis' recipes was featured in the Bryant Terry's Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora [A Cookbook], which was also released in 2021. [12] That same year, Dennis temporarily moved to Bluffton to start his position as culinary director at the Lowcountry Fresh Market and Cafe. [2] In 2022, he moved back to Charleston. [2]
In an article published by The New York Times on May 9, 2022, Dennis is said to have encouraged Emily Meggett to write the "first high-profile book on Gullah Geechee cooking," which resulted in her publishing Gullah Geechee Home Cooking: Recipes from the Matriarch of Edisto Island. [13]
Dennis has also participated in Charleston Wine + Food event from 2020 to 2023. [7] The Charleston Wine + Food is a local 501(c )(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Charleston's culinary scene. [14] Dennis' 2022 Charleston Wine + Food event sold out within minutes. [5]
While attending Trident, Dennis began working as a dishwasher at Hyman’s Seafood in Charleston; the experience convinced him to change his major to culinary arts. Over the next several years, he worked at a variety of different restaurants in Charleston, Savannah, St. Thomas, and West Africa. [15] [16] Upon returning to the United States, he began hosting Gullah-Geechee pop-ups. [15] [17]
In 2021, Dennis moved to Bluffton to serve as the culinary director at Lowcountry Fresh Market and Cafe, [18] then returned to Charleston to lead the food program at the International African American Museum. [19]
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dennis reviewed the manuscript of Emily Meggett's book on Gullah cuisine, at the request of Meggett's son. Soon after, a literary agent asked Dennis if he would be interested in writing a book; he said that the first book on Gullah cuisine should be Meggett's. [20] That book, Gullah Geechee Home Cooking, was published by Abrams Books in 2022. [21] In 2022, Dennis and Nicole A. Taylor were collaborating on a book to be released through Penguin Random House. [15]
Dennis has also participated in the Charleston Wine + Food Festival. [22]
Fusion cuisine is a cuisine that combines elements of different culinary traditions that originate from different countries, regions, or cultures. Cuisines of this type are not categorized according to any one particular cuisine style and have played a part in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s.
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The Gullah are a subgroup of the African American ethnic group, who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Their language and culture have preserved a significant influence of Africanisms as a result of their historical geographic isolation and the community's relation to its shared history and identity.
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Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor was an American culinary anthropologist, griot, poet, food writer, and broadcaster on public media. Born into a Gullah family in the Low Country of South Carolina, she moved with them as a child to Philadelphia during the Great Migration. Later she lived in Paris before settling in New York City. She was active in the Black Arts Movement and performed on Broadway.
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Vibration Cooking: Or, the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl is the 1970 debut book by Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor and combines recipes with storytelling. It was published by Doubleday. A second edition was published in 1986, and a third edition was published in 1992. The University of Georgia published another edition in 2011. Smart-Grosvenor went on to publish more cookbooks after Vibration Cooking. Vibration Cooking raised awareness about Gullah culture.
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