Can a culinary celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spark meaningful conversation?
On January 16, 2026, I was part of a very fun and unusual event at historic Art Depot in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Steamboat Creates, a local arts organization, invited me to curate a meal to celebrate the life and influence of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. AND spark conversation.
As a bonus, the evening would feature groundbreaking and norm-bending art of Lamont Joseph White. You should definitely check out his art. I happily accepted the challenge.
With the help of Brian and Florencia Morales of La Central Catering (based in Hayden), we created an innovative menu. King LOVED soul food. Rather than serve a traditional soul food meal, we took some creative license.
For appetizers, we served fried macaroni and cheese croquettes and a spoon of coleslaw topped with Creole broiled catfish nuggets (based on a recipe in my soul food book), hibiscus aid (another recipe from my soul food book), and sweet tea.
For the main meal, we created the following courses:
Gumbo Z’Herbes (also known as “Green Gumbo”) created a lot of discussion points. We connected this dish to King in several ways. West African cooks extensively use plant leaves, which we call greens, and King’s West African ancestors likely eaten plasas, or palaver, which is a meat and greens stew that is enjoyed in several countries. Green gumbo is very similar to these West African green stews. Also, King possibly has Irish ancestry, so featuring something green and a playful reference to Black Irish seemed in order. We adapted Leah Chase’s recipe. Chase’s New Orleans restaurant, Dooky Chase, was an important meeting place during the civil rights movement during King’s era.
Attendees were encouraged to talk to the people at their table about their food traditions, especially if greens play a role. Since the gumbo features bitter greens, attendees were also asked to discuss the “bitter Dr. King” who emphasized social justice versus the sanitized version of his teachings that has emerged in recent years.
For the main course, we emphasized the international aspects of King’s social justice ministry. On the menu was Country Captain with curry condiments, okra and tomatoes, garden salad, and rice.
If you’re not familiar with Country Captain, it’s a chicken curry dish that popular in Georgia, King’s home state. The dish folkloric origins with Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia advocating as its birthplace when the captain of an offshore British ship carrying spices introduced curry powder. Curry powder is inspired by spice blends from India. I used this dish to discuss how King was strongly influenced by Mohandas Gandhi, the Indian spiritual leader who championed non-violent tactics to achieve social justice. We used the recipe found in The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock.
We served okra and tomatoes as a side dish to represent the international connections of King’s teachings. The world watched as the civil rights movement unfolded, and many other countries were simultaneously experiencing social justice movements. Okra, an east African botanical native, shows up in many cuisines around the world. People grub on okra and tomatoes in West Africa, the American South, Europe, and Southwest Asia (which some call “The Middle East”). Okra is useful ingredient to symbolize culinary and spiritual connection.
At this point in the meal, people were encouraged to discuss the international and spiritual aspects of current social justice movements.
We ended the meal with slices of gooey butter cake and sweet potato pie. The gooey butter cake, a St. Louis original that was later embraced by Memphis–the city where King spent the last days of his life. King also loved sweet potato pie, including ones made by Georgia Gilmore. Gilmore sold sweet potato pies and other food to financially support the Montgomery Bus Boycott. King later encouraged Gilmore to start her own food business. It was another example of how King inspired others.
This sweet ending was topped off with those at the gathering singing “This Little Light of Mine.” I improvised the last verse to have a Steamboat Springs vibe, and we sang: “In the mountain snow, I’m going to let it shine . . . .”
We got a LOT of great feedback on this event, especially the food, and attendees felt that the conversation prompts did lead to good discussion that they might not have had.