Alisha Smith

By Alisha M. Smith, Pastry Chef and Founder of Roots & Returns Some days, missing someone shows up in the kitchen first. It might be a smell. A recipe card in handwriting you would know anywhere. A pot you never use because it was theirs. Grief has a way of finding us in the places where love used to cook. During one hard winter, I made my grandmother's sweet potato pie. I lit a candle and played her favorite hymn. I cried into the crust. It tasted like home, even though she was not there....

By Alisha M. Smith, Pastry Chef and Founder of Roots & Returns Someone told me recently that I’m a Tier 2 woman. The insult itself was not the most revealing part. The most revealing part was the worldview underneath it: the idea that women can be sorted, ranked, and assigned value according to how closely they match someone else’s standards. That kind of language is harmful, but what interests me most is what happens after a comment like that lands. Many women do not simply feel hurt. They...

Sometimes I ask people a question that seems very simple: “Tell me three foods you genuinely enjoy.” Most people expect that question to be easy. But something interesting happens. Some people pause. Some people laugh nervously. Some people start negotiating their answer. “I don’t know.” “Well… it depends.” “Whatever everyone else likes.” That moment always catches my attention. Because most people don’t actually struggle to know what they like. What they struggle with is trusting their own...