The author combines intensive genealogical and historical research as well as personal accounts to support the argument that the origin of southern cuisine is heavily based in the continent of Africa.

The recipes have African, Native American, and European roots as the author integrates his Jewish faith into African-American cooking.

The author discusses how he did not enjoy traditional soul food recipes during his youth but began to accept his African American heritage as he learned to cook.

This exploration of the culinary history seeks to raise awareness of diversity of ingredients that African Americans traditionally ate in the South.

The Cooking Gene also compares and contrasts Jewish and Black foodways, and discusses followers of Judaism in the south.