PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF TAFT MUSEUM OF ART
Food often articulates cultural perspectives through where it’s available, how much it costs, who it’s served to, and who is serving. Chef/writer Tunde Wey feels that food can also be a vehicle for critical commentary.
The native of Nigeria serves as the Taft Museum of Art’s 38th Duncanson Artist in Residence, the program’s very first chef. He’ll host a number of public programs April 13–27, starting with a free opening reception at the museum and including interactive events out in the community.
Wey has studied and written about how the food and political economies intersect, focusing particularly on how economics and finance impact the working-class Black community globally. He’s written for The Boston Globe, Oxford American, The San Francisco Chronicle, and CityLab, among other publications, with thought-provoking pieces such as “Who Owns Southern Food” and “The Whitewashing of Detroit’s Culinary Scene.”
Wey discusses his views of dining equity and his upcoming time in Cincinnati via an e-mail interview from Nigeria.
You’re notably not traditionally trained as a chef, so how did food come to be part of your personal story as well as your work?
I came to food by accident. I lucked into opening up a restaurant in Detroit at a time when the city’s food scene was burgeoning. I was part of a class of folks using food to showcase the city differently. We garnered success, and I never looked back.
At what point did you realize food was an ideal medium for you to convey critical insight and political commentary?
From the beginning. I knew food was more than nutrition; it’s a cultural product, a social artifact. Food spaces overtook other forms of retail as convening spaces and entertainment destinations, and chefs were elevated to artists and treated with deference. If food could articulate cultural perspectives, it could also be a vehicle for critical commentary. Food, like most other art, is able to show us more than what we meet visually.
Can you briefly tell us about one or two of your past dishes, projects, or pieces?
Most of my work uses price as a tool to communicate inequality and difference. My current project is an alcoholic beverage that costs what it would take each U.S resident to pay down Nigeria’s dollar-denominated debt.
How did the Taft Museum of Art Duncanson Artist-in-Residence opportunity come about?
I was lucky enough to be included in an e-mail circular that shared the opportunity. After I read up on the residency, it felt like a perfect opportunity to share my work to an audience in Cincinnati. I have a fondness for the city since my first and only visit about eight years ago.
As you work at the intersection of food and politics, I wonder what sociopolitical concerns are top of mind as you prepare for this residency?
The allocation and accumulation of capital. In Cincinnati, there are billions of dollars applied to different returns-seeking regimen or investments. How much of that is extractive, and how much of that expands opportunities for working-class folks? This is what I’m interested in exploring.
In practical terms, what can people expect to experience from your residency here? A meal, a taste, an experience?
Hopefully a place to think critically about the distribution of resources. I hope to create spaces where we can learn together and question the structures that reinforce wealth at the expense of working folk.
You’re from Nigeria and recently New Orleans, coming to Cincinnati, a very Midwestern city that city grapples with inequities both historical and modern. So how local can we expect your lens to be as you reside and work in Cincinnati?
I wish my lens could be even more local. I’m around for a just few weeks, unfortunately, so there’s only so much that is possible. But questions in Cincinnati are not exclusive to Cincinnati—these are global questions with local manifestations. I hope to bring a broad perspective and framework that allows the audience to fill in the necessary details with local color, and hopefully together we can perceive the thread that connects us all even as we tackle the special ways these issues show up in each of our communities.
Why is food such a powerful tool for starting important conversations?
Food is a great opportunity for difficult conversations because it’s a common and intimate experience everyone shares. This commonality and intimacy can allow for more vulnerability, where realizations are revealed, breakthroughs are realized, or at least our differences are properly established. It’s the only way we can understand our limits and potential to change deeply rooted social systems.
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