black history month

Best in food

Baltimoreans may have encountered David and Tonya Thomas while dining at Ida B’s Table or Herb & Soul Gastro Café & Lounge, the restaurants they used to run.

But the couple’s culinary and cultural work extends far beyond restaurant walls.

Through their new venture, the H3irloom Food Group, the Thomases share modern soul food at events held around the region as well as through pop-ups at The Sinclair, the Orangeville venue where their catering company is based.

Education and mentorship are a focus for the Baltimore-based couple, who were both named mentors for the Legacy Network, a program organized by the prestigious James Beard Foundation to support Black Americans and Indigenous people within the culinary industry.

Another project, a 68-acre farm in Baltimore County where the Thomases plan to grow crops indigenous to the area, will be an opportunity to preserve and share Black food history in Maryland.

“I don’t know that you can have a conversation about food in this country without talking about African Americans and food,” David Thomas said. “Very often, we’re locked out of the narrative.”

— Amanda Yeager