'Soul Food Is Love': Oklahomans Celebrate Juneteenth Through Food

Juneteenth is a historic day and part of the celebration brings a showcase on soul food.

It's a passion for flavor that's rooted in history.

Some call it country food, others call it comfort food, but many people like know it as soul food.

It can be defined as many different things, it all depends on your background.

“It takes us back to our roots to what we come from, to what our families worked hard for and provided for us back in the day,” Lavita Phillips said.

No matter how you define it, it’s food that comes from the heart.

“Soul food is love. That's what we do. We cook soul food from the heart, we raised our food in the country, and we put love in everything we did,” Florence Kemp with Florence’s Restaurant said.

Florence's Restaurant has been serving soul food for more than 70 years. She learned how to cook in the historic black town Boley, Oklahoma.

A lot of the food she cooked came from her mother's garden. She practiced traditions that were handed down from her ancestors now to her daughter, Victoria Kemp.

“What my ancestors got was the leftovers. Usually on the holidays we have chitterlings. I always think that's all my ancestors had, and I have to believe that they prayed over them, and the lord heard they're prayer because they kept growing bigger and stronger,” Victoria Kemp said.

Like Florence, a new up and coming chef said she fell in love with soul food from an early age.

“My mom they always cooked and every Sunday and so I wanted to be like them,” Valyciah McCarty.

Right now, McCarty enjoys making stuffed turkey legs.

“I consider my food soul food with a mix of new age,” McCarty said.

On holidays like Juneteenth, it's food that brings the family together.

“Juneteenth is a holiday of freedom of joy of getting out of slavery so right now with being a soul food company and just being a Black individual is the reason why we do what we do today,” McCarty said.