"After I read about the institute in Saveur magazine, I was so excited that I called its director, Jessica Harris. As I heard about all her expansive plans which include the creation of an online clearinghouse for the general public and an international conference on the food of the Diapsora, I couldn't help but wonder: Why had something like this not been created before now? Why has so little attention been given to the food of African Americans and the African Diaspora never been fully explored? Cookbook authors have provided scores of recipes for greens, cornbread and barbecue sauce but that seems to be where interest and research ends for most. Certainly there has never been an academic entity created with the singular focus of expanding the body of information on black foodways."