Hercules Posey: George Washington's unsung enslaved chef

Each year, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sees millions of heritage-seeking tourists who traipse the reconstructed brick pathways of the old city, eager to see the sites that birthed ideas of American liberty such as Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, and the iconic Liberty Bell. But like its ties to democracy, Philadelphia's connection to great American food culture has roots that reach into the distant past, roots that until recently have been obscured in the history books.

Much of the fledgeling nation's culinary excellence was achieved in the homes of its Founding Fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, where high-end cuisine was perfected not by white cooks but by enslaved chefs of African descent. These highly skilled chefs were influenced by the city's bountiful European, Caribbean and Native American exchange of culinary ideas and techniques, as well as their own heritage.

According to Dr Kelley Fanto Deetz, author of Bound to the Fire: How Virginia's Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine, a mix of West African, European, Native American foodways collided in the colonies, by force," she said, "and this collision found a world stage in places like Washington's dining room table in Philadelphia."

Preparing the food that made its way to Washington's tables was the unsung haute culinarian Hercules Posey. Posey was unique among his peers in that he was famous in his own time and was acknowledged by white society. He had a larger than life persona, and, as head chef, a position of power in the household, as well as some quasi-freedoms like the ability to leave the house on his own when he was not working and to earn money selling leftovers from the kitchen.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220201-hercules-posey-george-washingtons-unsung-enslaved-chef