Toni Tipton-Martin

Years of Participation

Toni Tipton-Martin is a culinary journalist, author and community activist who has dedicated her career to building a healthier community. She is the author of the The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks, a book that celebrates the important legacy of African American cooks and their cookbooks. She is the winner of a 2015 James Beard Book Award, the 2015 Art of Eating Prize, and the recipient of a 2015 Certificate of Outstanding Contribution to Publishing from the Black Caucus of the Library Association. She founded a 501c3 nonprofit organization that promotes the connection between cultural heritage, food and health through two events, the Children’s Picnic: A Real Food Fair and Soul Summit: A Conversation About Race, Identity, Power and Food. Toni is profiled in the 35th Annual 2016 Aetna African American History Calendar, is a member of the James Beard Awards committee, and a co-founder of Southern Foodways Alliance and Foodways Texas.

Toni has been invited twice by First Lady Michelle Obama to the White House. She was the first African American Food Editor of a major daily newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and she was the nutrition writer for the Los Angeles Times and a contributing editor to Heart and Soul Magazine. Toni supports the food industry through service on several professional boards as a member of the James Beard Awards Committee and as a founding member of the Southern Foodways Alliance and Foodways Texas. She also is on the Advisory Board for Oldways’ African Heritage Diet Pyramid.

Toni has been a guest instructor at Whole Foods Culinary Center, and a featured speaker at Fearrington Village in N.C.; the Austin History Center; the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, the Longone Center for American Culinary Research at William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan; Culinary Historians of Southern California; the International Association of Culinary Professionals; Les Dames D’Escoffier; Webster College; Prairie View A&M University; Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, Foodways Texas, the College of Charleston; Mississippi University for Women; and Austin Foodways. She is an advisor to a grassroots peace movement that is rekindling the pie social as a vehicle for racial tolerance.

Toni is a wife and the mother of four. She splits her time between Austin, Texas and Denver, Colorado.