Hands-On Cooking Program with Jerome Bias (SOLD OUT)

Celebrating Our Ancestors is a multi-day public event designed to share the history of enslaved people in Pensacola and celebrate the many important contributions they made to create this city and its unique culture. Celebrating Our Ancestors will continue with a hands-on cooking program led by renowned historic interpreter Jerome Bias.

About the Hands-On Cooking Program

Participants will spend the day working  side-by-side with renowned historic interpreter Jerome Bias to recreate meals prepared by enslaved people in Pensacola. Working over an open hearth, participants will learn how archaeological and historical research was used to guide meal design and preparation. Led by Jerome Bias (SDP), participants will learn about enslaved cooks, African American foodways, and how to prepare a meal over an open hearth. 

Participants will:

• Help prepare and maintain a fire for open hearth cooking
• Prepare food items for cooking (ex. washing, chopping, or seasoning)
• Cook over an open hearth
• Help clean and maintain historic cooking equipment
• Eat the food prepared throughout the day
• Learn what archaeology and history can tell us about what enslaved people ate and cooked in the past
• Take part in conversations about foodways, history, and culture in Pensacola and throughout the Gulf South

About Jerome Bias

Jerome Bias is a living historian, historic furniture maker, and culinary expert. He owns Southern Heritage Furniture and has a passion for building period reproductions of furniture pieces from Eastern North Carolina and Southern Virginia. Mr. Bias previously worked as a joiner at Old Salem Museums and Gardens in North Carolina, where he led woodworking demonstrations to thousands of people each year. He is an expert on the enslaved and free Black cooks and craftspeople, including renowned cabinet maker Thomas Day. In the fall of 2022, Mr. Bias was the first-ever artist in residence at  Belle Grove Plantation, a National Trust property in the Shenandoah Valley, and has led several multi-day cooking programs at James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange County, Virginia. Mr. Bias has given talks and woodworking demonstrations for the Chapel Hill Preservation Society and the Thomas Day Educational Foundation, and he serves as a consultant with the North Carolina Museum of History. 

Event Details

PARTICIPATION IN THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT. However, if you would like to join the waiting list please register below. Members of the public are still welcome to observe the cooking program.

Registration

No experience is necessary.

Participants under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Children must be at least 12 years old to participate in this program.