BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Mom's House specializes in sharing soul food with the Bakersfield community, and by cooking this traditional food, it highlights the history and culture carried in the black community following the transatlantic slave trade.
- Video shows soul food cooked at Mom's House
- Co-owner Dirk Johnson's family recipes span generations, and he says he wanted his customers to feel like family when they eat a meal at Mom's House.
Sitting down for a meal at Moms House means more than just a full stomach for the black community.
It carries history and culture, and for some local customers it takes them back home.
“Hi, how are you doing today?” Mercadiez Moore, a server at Mom's House, asked a local customer.
If you’re looking for a history lesson, you can find it in an unsuspecting place at Mom's House.
“Extra lemon? I got you,” Moore said.
In the fried chicken, waffles, and collard greens lie the recipes of co-owner Dirk Johnson’s family.
“That’s where it all started from is right there,” Johnson said, showing 23ABC a photo of his mom on the restaurant's wall, but his mom’s recipes span generations even before.
“It really takes, I think it takes us back culturally,” Kenny, a customer at Mom's House said about the cuisine.
Soul food developed during the transatlantic slave trade when African slaves were given low quality ingredients which they adapted to preserve traditional African cuisine, according to the African American Registry.
That resilience has found it’s way to Bakersfield.
“I wouldn’t allow my color to make it an excuse to like 'Hey, we can’t do x y and z.' No. I was always taught you can do anything you want to do and that’s how I came about it,” Johnson said.
Now, the restaurant continues sharing those recipes with our community.
In every plate, customers like Rod Dixon say they find connections to home.
“I feel like it’s hometown cooked, so my grandmother used to cook this type of food when we were growing up,” Dixon said.
That's something Moore says the team emphasizes through good food and prayers for the people who need it.
“Not only are we their servers but we’re like, but we’re like family, so we don’t treat them like we’re only their servers, we treat them like family,” Moore said.
That family feel spanning generations brings a taste of history to a plate in Bakersfield.
“When you cook good food it makes everybody happy,” Johnson said.
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