10 Famous Black Foodies Share Their Signature Recipes (2024)

During her memorable legacy as a first lady, Michelle Obama established a White House Kitchen Garden in 2009 and pinned a cookbook called American Grown in 2012. We tried many of the Obama family's favorites, and while it's impossible to pick a favorite, one of the most popular among her family and friends is her apple cobbler. In the intro for the recipe, the former first lady says, "I've been making this cobbler for a long time, so I usually just eyeball how much needs to go in. People might want more or less sugar, but this is how our family and friends like it. This recipe makes one cobbler, which is like a double pie."

Get the recipe: Michelle Obama's apple cobbler

Chrissy Teigen isn't the only cook in the family. John is famous for many of his recipes including his mac and cheese, chili, and fried chicken wings. But according to Chrissy, it's his brick chicken which "is so heavily demanded by our loved ones that it drive me to the point of insanity. Good thing it's damn easy."

Get the recipe: Tuscan brick chicken

While Oprah has had many signature food moments, one of her most popular and personal favorite recipes to make is Oprah's lemon zest pasta. "This recipe came from having nothing in the house but a box of spaghetti and some lemons. I grab whatever fresh herbs are available in my garden, about two handfuls' worth, total," she says. Of course the recipe features truffle salt, one of Oprah's Favorite Things!

Get the recipe: Oprah's lemon zest pasta

Nashville-born chef Carla Hall knows a thing or two about authentic hot fried chicken, and she opened her own restaurant called Carla Hall's Southern Chicken in Brooklyn, NY, to prove it. In an online post about her recipe, the cohost of ABC's The Chew said,"I'm proud to say that you can't find it outside my hometown, at least not true versions of it, unless you make it at home. For years, I've been talkin' about doing it and now I finally have." The key to Carla's chicken is brining it for hours in hot sauce, water, salt, and sugar.

Get the recipe: Carla Hall's hot fried chicken

Food Network host and author of Sunny's Kitchen, Sunny Anderson captivates her fans with her quick and easy comfort foods and love of all things spicy. While she often Instagrams unusual ingredients like sriracha powder and gochujang, one of her most famous recipes, her spicy mac and cheese, calls for something you likely have stocked in your spice cabinet: cayenne pepper.

Get the recipe: Sunny Anderson's spicy mac and cheese

Born in Ethiopia and adopted by a Swedish family, Marcus Samuelsson draws inspiration from his diverse background into his cooking. The signature dish at Red Rooster, his restaurant in Harlem, is the fried chicken, which took three years to develop. It also happens to be his most popular recipe on Food Network. However, Chef Samuelsson told First We Feast one of the dishes that made his career is Swedish meatballs. "I'm cooking today because of hanging out with my grandmother and my older sisters in the kitchen . . . The dish that we enjoyed making very much was meatballs, because you always have leftover meat at home, and you have an egg, and we always had breadcrumbs."

Get the recipe: Swedish meatballs

Out of all the recipes in Ayesha Curry's debut cookbook, The Seasoned Life, her Brown Sugar Roasted Chicken is one of her absolute favorites. "This is a recipe I would ALWAYS ask my mom to make for me as a child. It's hearty, delicious, and is easy to make. I make double when I make this chicken dish as it tastes even more flavorful the second day (and the third)," Ayesha writes in the recipe's intro. The chicken is equal parts crispy and juicy because it's seared in a skillet before being baked in the oven with a sweet glaze made of soy sauce and brown sugar.

Get the recipe: Ayesha Curry's brown sugar chicken

Bryant Terry, a vegan soul food chef, takes traditional Southern dishes and transforms them into healthy, plant-based versions without sacrificing the comforting flavors. While I'm a huge fan of his biscuits and barbecued black eyed peas, he told Vegetarian Times that he considers his citrus collards with raisins to be his signature dish. "When it was first published, the recipe was my way of showing you can take traditional cuisine and reinvent it — I grew up on collard greens that weren't considered done unless they'd cooked at least two hours." This recipe was revolutionary when it came out (way before the kale craze!). The collard greens are cooked until they wilt and turn bright green (but not a minute more), and the raisins and orange juice help sweeten the bitterness from the greens.

Get the recipe: citrus collards with raisins

Sister Sister star Tia Mowry hosts her own Cooking Channel show Tia Mowry at Home, and she's about to release her first cookbook, Whole New You, (out March 14). In an interview with Cooking Channel, Tia said, "I would say that my spaghetti and meatballs is my 'signature dish,' certainly amongst my family and friends. I could whip it up with my eyes closed at this point." Tia calls for old-fashioned oats and ground turkey in her meatballs, and she even sneaks in some fresh baby spinach.

Get the recipe: Tia Mowry's spaghetti and turkey meatballs

Patti LaBelle told Oprah Winfrey that Elton John "swore he saw Jesus" when he ate her "Over the Rainbow" mac and cheese. It's a beloved classic, but her sweet potato pie recipe is recently legendary because when she released a ready-made version at Walmart, it went viral on YouTube and sold out in stores.

Get the recipe: Patti LaBelle's sweet potato pie