Photo provided Guests may sample from a variety of cuisine at The Taste of Soul on Saturday.
New food, new venue, same soul.
Taste of Soul, hosted by Black History Month Columbus and the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp., is wrapping up Black History Month this Saturday with new chefs, new menu offerings and moving to Stunna’s, a new venue.
“We express ourselves historically through our food… through our music, our faith and so food for us is a way that we come together and that we celebrate with each other and love on each other,” Black History Month Columbus founder and project manager Whittney Wood-Gaines said. “It’s really well received in the community.”
Taste of Soul will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday. When purchasing tickets, attendees select a time slot to come during the 2 p.m., 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. session. Each session will last an hour.
Tickets cost $35 with an additional $4.19 Eventbrite fee for adults and $15 with an additional $2.85 Eventbrite fee for children 12 and under. Tickets can be purchased on eventbrite.com.
There’s four categories of food this year for patrons to try. The side dishes category and the meats category will have Stunna’s famous pot roast and wings from newer Black-owned food business His Wings. The desserts category will feature peach cobbler from Goodness Gracious Peach Cobbler, in addition to a dessert by Elev8 Events.
New this year and the last category is the macaroni and cheese category, where patrons may sample macaroni and cheese made by Homeboyz, Stunna’s, Elev8 Events and Jerone Wood.
“Macaroni and cheese is something really synonymous in our culture. We always say ‘he makes the best mac and cheese,’ so it’s usually a really debated topic at holidays and family gatherings,” Wood-Gaines said. “We’re super excited to have four different people doing that category…”
Though the chefs are volunteering their time and food for free, attendees can also leave tips for them. Before they leave, attendees will also vote for their favorite in each category, the winners to be announced at the end of each session and will receive a trophy created by BCSC’s C4 department. Wood-Gaines said they’ll most likely livestream the grand finale winners, or whoever won the most votes overall, at the end of the 4 p.m. session.
“It’s a rite of passage for people to tell you ‘you make the best food,’ especially the best mac and cheese and so it’ll be a lot of fun, people getting to taste all of them and vote and all,” Wood-Gaines said. “And when we announce the winners, that’ll be a big moment so we’re excited about that.”
In past years, Taste of Soul has been held at Central Middle School, but this year, it will be held at Stunna’s. Wood-Gaines said she likes to make it a little different each year, whether that means new food categories or a new venue. Because of the smaller venue, she said it will make the event a little more intimate and give attendees a chance to meet the chefs.
“… it’s a full circle moment that the first year we did this, (Stunna’s owner Michelle Mulimba) was kind of just starting her food prep business and now she’s (a) full-fledged caterer, including meal prep, has her own event space and a commercial kitchen,” Wood-Gaines said. ”We always try to use her as an example of how much this has grown and how much this had benefited just other local cooks who this might have helped motivate them to start a business.”
