Virginia’s Food Temptress Cookbook Store Celebrates Cookbooks By Black Authors

What started as a food blog for author Rekaya Gibson has blossomed into not only a career covering the culinary industry but also a thriving business. The Food Temptress Cookbook Store, located inside the Painted Tree Boutiques in Virginia Beach, Virginia, is a must-visit destination for readers and foodies alike and serves as a cozy retreat to peruse and purchase Gibson’s well-edited collection of cookbooks by Black authors.

The bookstore is named after Gibson’s 2009 novel and is also a moniker the Food & Drink reporter for The Virginian-Pilot newspaper happily embraces. “I had a food blog that was called The Food Temptress and I had been using it for a while with my freelance [writing],” details the bookstore owner.

“I was doing restaurant and product reviews, judging food contests and so the community knew me as ‘The Food Temptress.’”

Here, Gibson shares more about her specialty bookstore and why shining the spotlight on cookbooks by Black authors is her personal passion.

What sparked your interest in culinary literature?

I started freelance writing for Cuisine Noir more than ten years ago reviewing cookbooks. I accumulated a catalog of  about 50 cookbook reviews and I said, “Wouldn’t it be great to create a place where people can actually buy the cookbooks by Black authors?”

So, in 2021, I created an online store, and I started out with all the books that I reviewed and I just kept adding more. In 2023, I opened a physical space for people who still love to touch books, go into the store and purchase them. In the bookstore, I try to keep around a hundred books, and I always encourage people to go to the website where you have many more choices of cookbooks by Black authors.

Tell us more about the books we’ll find at The Food Temptress Cookbook Store?

I feature cookbooks by Black authors, and I really should preface culinary books by Black authors because they could be cookbooks; they could be memoirs by chefs, cooks, or restaurant owners, and those books range from African cuisine to Caribbean cuisine to vegan books.

I carry a whole range of cookbook genres for, about or by Black authors. [But there are exceptions] so, for instance, it could be a cookbook about a Black chef or a Black cook in history…but it wasn’t written by a Black author. And then the other exception is because it’s so hard for me to find cookbooks for children by Black authors, I tend to have a good mix of those that are not necessarily by Black authors.

Why do you think it’s important to shine the spotlight on cookbooks by Black authors?

I think it’s important for several reasons. My hope is that people will continue to keep recipes and stories in circulation—to pass them down from grandmothers, mothers, our ancestors. I know a lot of times people want to take their recipes to the grave, but they serve as a historical record of what was happening during that place in time.

They [the recipes] serve as memories for people. This was sort of my way of contributing to history and keeping them alive because so many people don’t want our history told. Even though we pass those recipes down, they change over time [but] the essence remains. The essence of us creating them and being originators of certain recipes is important to really continue keeping them in circulation.

How would you describe the vibe of your bookstore?

My cookbook store is inside the Painted Tree Boutiques, which is this huge warehouse with more than 200 boutiques. The Food Temptress Cookbook Store is one of them. My space is about six by nine feet and it has three walls.

People can browse my bookstore pretty quickly. But what I love about it is when you first approach the bookstore, the front wall has the cookbooks facing out, and I really try to select books that people will want to pick up, read and get inspired.

I also have a poster where customers can click on a QR code to go to the website to order cookbooks by Black authors if they don’t see something. Once they select their book, the Painted Tree Boutiques has a central checkout location, so I don’t have to be there every day. I do the inventory and go there at least once a week. The space is big enough where I’ve had author signings and events.

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What are some of your bestselling books at the store?

Some of our bestselling cookbooks by Black authors include “New World Sourdough Artisan Techniques for Creative Homemade Fermented Breads” by Bryan Ford, “Cooking with 5 Ingredients from Trader Joe’s” by Tracey Korsen, and “Praisesong For The Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks” by Crystal Wilkinson.

When it comes your personal favorite cookbooks by Black authors, which ones would you recommend and why?

So I really love, “AfriCali: Recipes From My Jikoni” by Kiano Moju, which I picked as this year’s cookbook club selection. I like this book because the author grew up in California but her parents are from Nigeria and Kenya. The recipes are influenced by all three and they’re relatable. You can find ingredients in the grocery store and create amazing flavorful dishes.

I love “Ageless Vegan” by Tracye McQuirter but I’m not vegan. It has tons of tasty recipes that even a carnivore would love.

I love recommending “Everyday Grand: Soulful Recipes for Celebrating Life’s Big and Small Moments” by Jocelyn Delk Adams. She shares family stories and traditions with more than 80 Southern-inspired recipes, each with beautiful images. The cookbook makes me happy and I hope it does the same for others.

What do you do you think makes cookbooks by Black authors special?

Cookbooks by Black authors bring the seasonings and the spices. They include stories, history and the love that their parents, grandparents, ancestors shared with them. You see people wanting to have that same experience for their families. Not to say no one else does, but Black cooks learned how to be creative and preserve traditions while creating their own ways to pass recipes down to new generations.

For example, I think “Homage: Recipes and Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen” by Chris Scott shows the diversity of soul food. When I discovered this cookbook, I was like, “Wow, we really have influenced American cuisine, and we’ve lived all over this nation!”

So when I look at [a cookbook] like Homage, I’m like, we had families who lived near Amish people and shopped in their stores, and we saw their recipes and created our own at home. We really have a fusion of food ideas because we had to adjust and adapt to our environments for so long that it makes the food special in that way.

The Food Temptress Cookbook Store is located inside the Painted Tree Boutiques at 1624 Laskin Road in Virginia Beach, Virginia and is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

You can also shop with the Food Temptress Cookbook Store online and follow on social media for upcoming releases, author talks, in-store book signings and more.

Have a book and want the Food Temptress Cookbook Store to carry it? Connect with Rekaya Gibson via email at info@foodtemptress.com.