Sheree Williams on 10 Years of Centering Black Food & Drink with Cuisine Noir (Part 1)

Sheree Williams is the publisher of Cuisine Noir, the first magazine dedicated to highlighting Black chefs. Sheree is one of the hardest working women in the food media world, publishing stories and running two blogs, the Culinary Scoop & Behind the Business. 

Cuisine Noir turned 10 last year so I wanted to talk to Sheree about what she’s learned, what advice she would give herself at the start of the magazine and how Cuisine Noir has changed over the years. In this moment when many publications are asking themselves how to support Black writers and feature Black stories, Sheree is an example of how food media can do better.

This is part one in a two part series. Part two, where Sheree and I discuss the current moment in media and how food media in particular ignores Black stories, will come out next week. - Korsha

Korsha Wilson: While I was getting ready for our talk I came across this interview you did when Cuisine Noir turned 5 years old in 2014. You discuss some of the goals you have for the next five years including wanting to expand into events and international stories. Do you feel you reached those goals? 

Sheree Williams: Yes and no.  We’ve definitely grown with telling international stories, which is a great thing. We've done small events, but not to the scale that I’ve wanted to only because I want to focus on growth but I believe that will come.  Being a niche publication we’re up against the lack of advertising dollars and still trying to prove there's a benefit to advertising with us. So in the meantime I will celebrate things like  Chef Mimi's Black Food and Wine Expo here in Oakland. Everyone is always saying ‘you should do this’ and ‘you should do that’ but I only want to when the time is truly right. 

KW: One of the main goals of Cuisine Noir is to increase the visibility of Black chefs but that’s changed so much in the last 10 years with the ubiquity of social media and chefs using their profiles as platforms for their brands. How do you look at building visibility for Black chefs today?

Sheree Williams, publisher of Cuisine Noir

SW: Mainly through digging in and telling stories. What I always love about Cuisine Noire is that we’ve found our stories may be different from some of the other publications because there's a Black voice speaking to a Black audience in a Black publication and so there's things chefs, writers, somms  can really share and get off their chest because we understand. There really is no censoring in that sense. We're telling those stories and that's expanding the narrative. 

KW: That’s really interesting. There’s no code switching because it’s a Black publication speaking to a Black audience. 

SW: You know, I'll read some writers out there talk about how some editors are editing their work from a totally different cultural standpoint or whatever, so they're not understanding what the writer may be trying to say. And so I think that really helps with us because we've lived that experience and we know that experience. As an editor I can say, ‘I see what you're saying and where you’re going’. 

KW: So, a lot of people don’t know that chef Richard Pannell started Cuisine Noir and you took it over in 2009. Can you talk about that transition and how that came to be?

SW: So Richard  started Cuisine Noir and launched it as an insert in the LA Sentinel, a Black newspaper based in Los Angeles, in 1998 to give voice to Black chefs because they really weren't out there in the media at all. We met on a project and he approached me about writing for the magazine and writing has always been in my blood. (I've been penning stories since I was in the fifth grade with Ms. Delaney.) So we connected and long story short, I took it over in 2009.  When I took it over I wanted to expand it to wine as well. 

Travel was another passion that I wanted to add to what we covered. I wanted to highlight Black travel stories, not to dispel myths but really just to show the way we live our lives. We travel to Europe, we ski, we do all of these things and we're not getting the recognition or it's not being put out there, but this is a part of our lifestyle. I really wanted to showcase our lifestyles in a different way that wasn't being portrayed.

I also wanted to show the breadth of Black chefs too. I remember in the beginning, when we were getting out there, I remember at one event someone seeing the magazine and saying, ‘Cuisine Noir? What is that? Soul food?’ I was like really? So our mission is really to show the versatility of Black chefs. If they want to do soul food great, but if they want to do French or Japanese cuisine, that’s great too. Let people do what they want to do and don't put black chefs into a box.

KW: Do you have any favorite stories you’ve published over the course of ten years?

SW: Oh wow. There's so many. I got a chance to interview Dr. Maya Angelo for Cuisine Noir in 2010 and that was amazing cause I remember her at the end of the interview she said, ‘I look forward to reading it in Cuisine Noir’. I almost fell off of my chair! To hear her say that was just so amazing. It was like, wow. 

There’s so many, Korsha. I think all of the stories are great because they’re about people who are following their passion. I love the story we just did on Merecia Smith out of South Africa. She wanted to be a dental assistant and couldn't find a job so she took work on a farm and it leads her to being the first Black person to open a wine analysis lab in South Africa.  Stories like that give me goosebumps. 

As I think over what I've really loved over the years it’s been telling those stories. When I first took over Cuisine Noir it was really just focused on the U. S. but then as we started digging into different cultures and traveling it started to evolve to include international stories. I love seeing how we may have been brought up with different cultures, but at the same time there's so many similarities in Black cultures around the world. In the way we cook and the way we do things and the ingredients that we use. Those things have been passed from continent to continent and so over the years, I decided we should connect the African diaspora through food, wine, and travel. Connecting around the world wherever there's black blood and showing that unity between us and our  international brothers and sisters is important to me. 

KW: Yes, the international focus is something that I think sets Cuisine Noir apart from other publications. What I also love about Cuisine Noir’s focus is that stories are always rooted in who instead of what. And that seems to be with writers as well. I know writing for Cuisine Noir gave me confidence to pitch the stories I wanted to see in the landscape and gave me a byline I could use to build my writing career, so thank you. 

SW: Thank you. I appreciate that. We really focus on quality and want to make sure we're telling the story right. And so I hope we can be a publication that companies will want to ally with us, support us and we support them. 

We focus on the who that’s writing the story too. When you're a manager you want to see your employees grow and blossom. So I really appreciate you saying that because it's just been great to see people who have written a story for us go on to do even greater things. I'm not one to hold anybody back, I'm here to see growth. The more people there are out there telling these stories, the better.

KW: Looking ahead, what do you want to see in the next 10 years of Cuisine Noir?

SW: Hmm… so many things are in the works for Cuisine Noir. Before covid hit, we had plans to do more kitchen videos. That got cut so we're revamping, but I definitely want us to be a resource for introducing different cuisines to viewers. Creating a philanthropic arm of Cuisine Noir’s work is very important to me.

I want to connect people who are in this industry with one another too. I have a blog called Behind the Business about my life as an entrepreneur and I’ll be launching a platform around the summer to connect and highlight the many great organizations and people that I've met and worked with over 10 years so we can come together as a community of business owners and entrepreneurs. I have a passion for making sure I share what I‘ve learned in business. 

KW: If you could go back to 2009 and talk to yourself as you were about to take over Cuisine Noir, what would you say? What advice would you give?

SW: I would say to myself to be patient and that you're in for a journey. It's not going to be an easy one, but you're out to do something that many will benefit from and many lives will be changed from. When we started off there were a lot of stars in my eyes. I would also say be ready for the ebb and flow of the business of publishing, journalism and media. Have a goal in mind and know that it won’t be a straight shot but it will be worth it. Every twist and turn will be a lesson learned and it will be a part of your story that is for your good, and it will benefit you when you get to that final destination.

KW: That’s really great advice and a good reminder as I continue with food writing as a career.

SW: Thank you. You know, there's been plenty of days on the phone with mom doing the ugly cry and asking, ‘why am I doing this?’ and I have to remember that I'm doing this because I love to do this. And so sometimes I have to remove the timelines and stop saying to myself, ‘I want to do this by 2021’ and ‘this by 2022’ and just enjoy it and remember you're going to get there.

Banner artwork by Alicia Montgomery.

Part 2 of this interview where we talk about the current state of food media will be up next week.