Cooking from Scratch with Toya Boudy
Center care with Cooking from Scratch — New Orleans chef and storyteller Toya Boudy's Malinda Russell-inspired sophomore release
In Cooking from Scratch: A Careful Selection of Useful Recipes, Toya Boudy takes a personal turn as she shares recipes and remedies that remind us of the breadth of nourishment our kitchens can offer.
Dive into the stories from her own life that inspired her to explore the first cookbook published by a Black woman in America, Malinda Russell's A Domestic Cook Book: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen (1866). The chef & author will delve into how A Domestic Cook Book served as a blueprint for her new cookbook, a contemporary invitation to reconnect with the range of meals and remedies cooking from scratch can yield.
Chef Toya brings it all together with her signature voice and style--and incredible flavors from Oyster Stew and Palestinian Arayes to Buttermilk Lemon Pepper Wings and Vegetable Pho. Enjoy Chef Toya's own gumbo along with a conversation moderated by Drive Change NYC's Kalilah Moon.
Ticket Options
Standard: general admission to the event
Standard + Book: general admission + a signed copy of Cooking from Scratch: A Careful Selection of Useful Recipes
Standard + Bundle: general admission + a signed copy of Cooking from Scratch: A Careful Selection of Useful Recipes + Malinda Russell's A Domestic Cook Book
Purchase your book in advance for a discount on your event ticket! Additional copies of the book will be available for purchase with personalized signings onsite.
Add a contribution to the BEM Cultural Foundation to your ticket purchase to support our stewardship of Black food books and cultures!
More about the book
Cooking from Scratch is chef and storyteller Toya Boudy’s most personal—and most irresistible—cookbook yet. Written during a transformative chapter in her life, it’s infused with the warmth, humor, and grit that have made her a morning-show favorite.
Drawing inspiration from Malinda Russell’s groundbreaking 1866 cookbook, A Domestic Cook Book, Boudy reimagines simple, soul-satisfying dishes designed to bring people together. In the wake of divorce and deep self-reflection, she has returned to the kitchen—the place that saved her nearly 30 years ago as a teenage single mom. Cooking from Scratch includes 70 family-loved recipes shaped by the cultures that define her: Mini Crawfish Pies, Jamaican Curry, African Spinach Stew, homey Salisbury Steak, and more. Beyond the table, she shares 20 natural remedies—from herbal cough syrup to “Detox” Lentil Soup—that nourish body and spirit alike.
With every page, Boudy shows how healing, joy, and resilience can begin with something beautifully simple: cooking from scratch.
More about the participants
Chef Toya Boudy is a New Orleans local and the author of Cooking for the Culture. She was crowned Best Home Cook by Hallmark’s Home & Family Channel in 2017, and she has appeared on Today, TLC, CBS, and the Food Network.
Kalilah Moon is a dynamic leader with 22 years of experience in nonprofit management, workforce development, and social justice advocacy. Originally from Oakland, California, she is driven by the belief that every individual, when given the right opportunity, can achieve their full potential and uplift their communities. She holds an Executive Leadership Certificate from Baruch College’s Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management from The New School, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Langston University. Prior to leading Drive Change, Kalilah served as Director of Career Services at The Door – A Center for Alternatives and as a Program Director at Brooklyn Workforce Innovations, where she developed strategic programs to support economic mobility for historically marginalized populations. A dedicated advocate for women in leadership, Kalilah is deeply engaged in executive support and healing spaces for women of color, including the Black Women’s Healing Group, the Leadership Alliance, and the Women’s Leadership Council. These networks, led by powerhouse women in New York City, provide a space for leaders to address the unique challenges of executive leadership while advancing equity, inclusion, and transformative change. Under her leadership, Drive Change has won the Brooklyn Org Spark Prize, was recognized as a Robin Hood Foundation Power Fund winner, and a Joe and Clara Tsai Social Justice Fund recipient. Kalilah also serves on the Board of the New York City Employment & Training Coalition (NYCETC).
More about BEM
BEM Cultural Foundation (BCF) is the sibling nonprofit to BEM | books & more, a bookstore and culinary hub dedicated to global Black foodways and storytelling.
Established in 2025, BCF creates programs and experiences that deepen the public’s knowledge of Black culinary and literary traditions across the diaspora. BCF prioritizes communal gatherings, creating space to celebrate and explore Black food through literature while serving as a home for readers, writers, cooks, and eaters passionate about Black cultures in all their diversity.