HERU

So much of your work focuses on food and its role in personal and cultural identity. You’ve evolved your own identity around your background, history, your sexuality, and your religion. Stepping away from your role as ambassador and historian for a second, what are the foods or meals that you think are most defining of who you are?

The biggest thing for me has been understanding how I come to certain recipes and things. There’s an active curating of my life, that things should tell a story about me. I do that for a reason because I realized that — it freaks me out — but our time here is so short and our time gone is so long that one has to make a statement. One has to have a presence. I’m grateful that I’ve had role models to look up to like André Leon Talley and other people who, no matter what people thought about them, made a statement about who they are. It’s very important to me.

For me, kosher soul rolls come to mind. I made that for Andrew Zimmern the first time I was on TV with him. They’re a great example because I first learned about soul rolls in the Deep South, and I was like, “It’s basically a Black egg roll.” Then, when I was going through Borough Park in Brooklyn, somebody had pastrami egg rolls. It’s kosher, and I was like, “Let me get one.” Walked in, got it — I was like, “This is really bland.” But I liked the pastrami part.

Pastrami, collard greens … I love me some spring rolls and Chinese food. Throw some scallions in there. Throw some vegetarian oyster sauce in there, hoisin, hot pepper, more garlic, more ginger, bam, bam, boom: kosher soul rolls. It’s something that speaks to all the things that I find delicious and wonderful and great in the world. It’s fun, it’s different, it’s interesting, but it also pays homage and tells a story.

Essentially, that’s who I am. I tell stories. I’m a griot. That’s what I aspire to be as an elder, and my elderhood is coming fast.

Why a spring roll? Because we ain’t got time. Eat it and go. Keep running. Keep going.

Read Michael W. Twitty’s new memoir, “Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew.”

This interview was edited for clarity and length.