What started as a food blog for author Rekaya Gibson has blossomed into not only a career covering the culinary industry but also a thriving business. The Food Temptress Cookbook Store, located inside the Painted Tree Boutiques in Virginia Beach, Virginia, is a must-visit destination for readers and foodies alike and serves as a cozy retreat to peruse and purchase Gibson’s well-edited collection of cookbooks by Black authors.
The bookstore is named after Gibson’s 2009 novel and is also a moniker the Food & Drink reporter for The Virginian-Pilot newspaper happily embraces. “I had a food blog that was called The Food Temptress and I had been using it for a while with my freelance [writing],” details the bookstore owner.
“I was doing restaurant and product reviews, judging food contests and so the community knew me as ‘The Food Temptress.’”
Here, Gibson shares more about her specialty bookstore and why shining the spotlight on cookbooks by Black authors is her personal passion.
What sparked your interest in culinary literature?
I started freelance writing for Cuisine Noir more than ten years ago reviewing cookbooks. I accumulated a catalog of about 50 cookbook reviews and I said, “Wouldn’t it be great to create a place where people can actually buy the cookbooks by Black authors?”
So, in 2021, I created an online store, and I started out with all the books that I reviewed and I just kept adding more. In 2023, I opened a physical space for people who still love to touch books, go into the store and purchase them. In the bookstore, I try to keep around a hundred books, and I always encourage people to go to the website where you have many more choices of cookbooks by Black authors.
Tell us more about the books we’ll find at The Food Temptress Cookbook Store?
I feature cookbooks by Black authors, and I really should preface culinary books by Black authors because they could be cookbooks; they could be memoirs by chefs, cooks, or restaurant owners, and those books range from African cuisine to Caribbean cuisine to vegan books.
I carry a whole range of cookbook genres for, about or by Black authors. [But there are exceptions] so, for instance, it could be a cookbook about a Black chef or a Black cook in history…but it wasn’t written by a Black author. And then the other exception is because it’s so hard for me to find cookbooks for children by Black authors, I tend to have a good mix of those that are not necessarily by Black authors.
Recipes for Celebrating Life’s Big and Small Moments” by Jocelyn Delk Adams. She shares family stories and traditions with more than 80 Southern-inspired recipes, each with beautiful images. The cookbook makes me happy and I hope it does the same for others.
By Jocelyn Amador
