Religion in the Kitchen, Elizabeth Perez

Elizabeth Pérez

Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions by Elizabeth Pérez discusses the practices and culture of the Lucumí, an Afro-Cuban religion. Pérez draws many comparisons and contrasts between the Lucumí and other religions to illustrate how the role of cooking heavily influences the culture, societal practices, and manifests in individuals themselves.

In religions such as Christianity, those subscribed to that faith present their religion by attending church at least once a week, and maybe attend a few other times for holidays and special occurrences.  I feel as though Pérez successfully showed how the Lucumí practices are deeper than just attending a once a week ritual, and the practices of the Lucumí become how their culture functions.

It is not as simple as preparing certain foods or spending time in the kitchen. The one who prepares these foods for the orishas [gods, higher beings, spirits] have a respected role, "several Black Atlantic religions developed terminology to designate the people in charge of cooking sacrificial remains. In Lucumí, the word used (along with the Spanish cocinera) is alashé..." (Perez 87).

These foods are sacrificial remains that are carefully and methodically dissected and presented. It takes more than just cutting up the sacrifice- Pérez writes that it requires the "presence of mind", "that special blend of equanimity and alertness to the potential need for swift action" (90).


The author continues to elaborate on the role of these practices. She writes in a subsection titled They Are How They Eat, "Culinary styles spring from and express social relations... [orishas] are simultaneously parents, strangers, and monarchs" (90). The culinary style comes from their social relations, and that arises from the community itself. She continues to say that food represents the character of its consumers, which is another successful way to show the connection these people have with their practices.

The kitchen becomes the place where "know-how, faith, respect, and physical beauty meet each other for the enchantment of the divinities" (94) and therefore the center of continued practice of religion. This plays a heavy role in the daily lives of these people and manifests into their "communal life" (107).

"If you go into the kitchen, things will happen to you" (100).

Attached is a neat video talking about Yoruba orishas. The Lucumí shares these orishas and worships them (or at least some of them from what I am aware of).