Mt. Airy woman explores culture and identity through ethnic cooking

You will be hearing a lot about Lori Tharps on NewsWorks in the coming months. That’s because this Mt. Airy woman somehow finds time to excel at many things.

She has a new novel about the tribulations of trying find a nanny, She once appeared on the Tyra Banks show to talk about bad hair days and later this month she will participate in a parenting panel hosted by WHYY.

But for now, I want to introduce you to Tharps the cook. WHYY profiled Tharp on its nutritional cooking website FIT earlier this week. She stood out because she explores race, culture and identity through food. In this profile she prepared Jamaican curried chicken and explained, “When we are talking about a Caribbean dish the Caribbean was an amalgamation of cultures –African, Indian and Asian, but when you talk about curry powder from the West Indies its usually turmeric, coriander, ginger and salt. It should be yellow, though, if it’s not yellow it’s probably not a West Indian curry.”

You see what what I mean? It’s like Ten-thousand Villages meets Kitchen Kapers in Mt. Airy. Check out our profile of her here.

You can find out the many other sides of Lori Tharps on her website.