MEET ALISHA
HI, I'M
ALISHA SMITH
I’m Alisha Smith, founder of Roots & Returns and creator of Joy-Centered Culinary Healing™.
I come from grandmothers who taught me that food is more than nourishment—it’s memory, culture, and care you can taste. After loss reshaped my life—grief, infertility, and divorce—I found a language my body could hold: the kitchen. Baking became a way to stay close to love, to name what hurt, and to come back to myself in small, repeatable ways.Roots & Returns is my work of return: creating grief-literate culinary experiences that honor heritage, build emotional resilience, and restore belonging—through recipes, ritual, and community witnessing.
The Birth of
Roots & Returns
Roots & Returns was born in a season of layered loss—infertility and divorce. I didn’t turn to the kitchen to distract myself. I turned to it to stay close to love, to feel what I couldn’t explain, and to give my grief somewhere safe to land.
Through that return, I learned something I now build my work around: food doesn’t just nourish the body. It can steady the nervous system, hold memory, and make space for emotion without performance.
Roots & Returns exists to help people stir up what matters—comfort, lineage, and truth—through grief-literate culinary rituals that honor culture, preserve legacy, and create real connection wherever we gather.
The Lessons Learned
What I know for sure is this: food holds memory. And when we return to the flavors that raised us, we don’t just remember—we reconnect. We honor the people who made a way, and we strengthen our sense of belonging.Roots & Returns was born from my own losses and my own return. I learned that baking and cooking can nourish the spirit, give grief somewhere to land, and bring the body back to steadiness—especially when words aren’t enough.
My goal is to create a modern “third place”: a space rooted in community care, cultural legacy, and tenderness, where Black creativity and resilience are celebrated, local Black businesses are supported, and people can gather around food that tells the truth.
Roots & Returns preserves these legacies and curates experiences that help us remember, feel, and come home—through cooking, baking, and ritual.
I WELCOME YOU
I Invite you to Get Lost Here
I've filled this platform with thoughts, resources, recipes and various ways to connect with both me and other "strong ones" like us. I invite you to spend time here and find something that resonates with your heart.
Consider this your official welcome to Roots & Returns.
- Love Alisha
