We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sheree Williams. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sheree below.

Sheree, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

The Global Food and Drink Initiative has a very important mission of celebrating food cultures and preserving the food histories of the African diaspora through storytelling, education, and advocacy. While I started the organization in 2020, my journey into this current chapter of my work began in 2009.

On September 1, 2009, I re-launched the first Black culinary lifestyle publication Cuisine Noir to celebrate Black professionals in food, drink and travel. I was still relatively new in my journalism career and wanted to fill a gap in the food media industry about Black food culture that was missing among popular publications such as Food & Wine, Saveur, Cooking, Bon Appétit, and more. A deep dive into history tells us that Black people are very much responsible for America’s food story, yet remained largely absent and invisible from it as well as on TV screens and media pages. This of course has changed over the 10 years.

Over the years as the publication’s presence and audience grew, so did my curiosity about Black food cultures around the world and our connection as people of African descent. This path evolved my journey with Cuisine Noir to include stories from Africa, Europe, South America, etc. because mainstream media outlets in their respective countries were not championing these stories.

Connecting with individuals and communities around the world, helped me understand my life as a Black woman and how my own food experiences growing up were similar to other Black people’s around the world, even though we had never met. It was then that I learned how powerful food is, how important it is to understanding cultures, and how communities define themselves through food. Most importantly and sadly, food’s role in building countries, economies and wealth through the horrific actions of others. For this reason, food truly is political, and for the first time, the dots were connecting.

Today it fills my heart to continue celebrating Black food cultures and taking it a step further by learning about the history that informs these food cultures and ensuring we create safe spaces for this history to be known and shared in the present and future. This is why my organization’s mission is so important and meaningful to me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am Sheree, a 51-year-old executive director, publisher, and journalist born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, IL. Growing up, I always had a creative mind, and it was when I entered the 5th grade that my creativity began to blossom.

My teacher Ms. Delany introduced me to the art of writing short stories and drawing on words to express how I thought and I have never stopped. Short stories turned into school essays, which turned into college papers and later various professional documents and now important stories that capture the human experience through food.

However, although I loved writing, I had other plans of how to use it, which involved climbing the ladder of corporate America in various communications roles. I eventually learned in my 30s that this was not for me. I created my first business in 2005 while in graduate school and met a chef who worked to increase the visibility of chefs in the Sacramento area. Our paths would later cross again in 2007 as I learned more about his work to champion the accomplishments of Black chefs and his concept for Cuisine Noir. I quickly went from wanting to provide PR services to wanting to be more involved in introducing this magazine to audiences. Unbeknownst to me, the journalist inside of me would soon be born.

We launched an early version of Cuisine Noir online and worked together for over a year before I would eventually expand the vision under my ownership and re-launch it in 2009. Cuisine Noir continued to fill the gap in food media with stories about not only Black chefs but also Black winemakers (there were less than 30 at the time compared to today) and challenge lifestyle assumptions about if and where Black people travel to. Cuisine Noir offered new narratives and perspectives about food and the dishes cherished by Black people and Americans. Most importantly, the magazine’s focus on Black people in food, drink and travel allowed other Black people to see themselves and their experiences in the stories we told. Representation is essential. In addition, I found my calling in life, completing my full circle moment that began in the 5th grade.

2024 marked 15 years for me as a publisher, and to say my journey has been full of just good food, amazing places, and sipping Champagne is an understatement. This is still a publishing business, and the balancing act of growing and sustaining a business while staying true to the artistry of writing can be tricky. You never know if you are truly making the right decisions because you are basing decisions on what you know at the time. You don’t know what you don’t know. But I am most proud of sticking to the vision and building block by block. As a result, I have created an amazing global media outlet respected around the world, pioneered Black food media, and helped others affirm who they are through food while no longer being ashamed due to the social construct of whiteness. I am also proud to continue leading the way with stories no other media outlet is telling today and doing so with integrity. My team and I do this work from the heart and the love of our communities, which may not always translate into the amount of money I need or want to grow this business, but we have been able to sustain it year after year.

The last thing that I am proud of is being the recipient of the James Beard Award for Emerging Voice given through my nonprofit, The Global Food and Drink Initiative, which is under five years old. The honor of this particular award is that it was a committee of my fellow peers in journalism who follow and are familiar with our work and who also nominated and selected me and GFDI vs. rounds of voting with those who most likely do not know our work and this made the recognition very special. It taught me to always remember that you never know who is watching your work, so never give up.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I took on the role of publisher in 2009, I can honestly say I didn’t know fully know what this meant. Early on, I focused on telling great stories vs. primarily focusing on financially growing the business. There is a reason these are two different roles within a publishing company. For smaller businesses such as mine where that is not an option, balancing the two hats we must wear is critical.

For years and years as a publisher, I spent time looking for the right tools to connect with advertisers and trying to understand what they want and how to deliver it. While there were so many things at play that I would later find out, the bottom line is that if you were a legacy publication that thrived before digital publishing became the new norm, you continued to do well. Also, if you had the connections and could secure an experienced sales team, you would do well. Both of these were not true for me.

Meanwhile, on the editorial side, we continued to grow and blossom in the way expanded our vision to not only include publishing a magazine but having a more active role in conversations about Black people in food, drink and travel such as diversity of the industry on TV (especially reality culinary competition shows), events, etc. I also began to dig deeper into understanding Black food history that influenced the creation of Cuisine Noir.

When 2020 hit and the world was faced with so many challenges around racial inequality, COVID, etc., I took the time to really reflect on the work and the impact I wanted to continue having and the legacy I wanted to leave behind. As I put everything together, I decided to pivot the business and form a nonprofit. The Global Food and Drink Initiative was founded to go beyond storytelling by filling in an education gap that has been missing about Black food culture and Black food history and creating spaces to advocate for our voices to be heard in an industry that has historically left Black voices out.

In addition, I wanted to also create multiple streams of revenue beyond advertising that would fund this work and our new mission. For me, this pivot to establishing a nonprofit made sense and is one of the best business decisions that I can say I have made.

However, this pivot is not the answer for all publishers and outlets. Therefore, every business owner should have those times when they evaluate what is working and what is not and chart the best path forward. I understand that without revenue a business can’t survive, but I also wanted the space to be able ensure I focused on the importance of the work that still needed to get done by engaging supporters within various communities.

Any advice for managing a team?

Looking back over my corporate career, which lasted more than 20 years, I remember why I viewed specific roles more favorably than others. It was due to my managers who treated team members like humans in the midst of requiring quality output. As a result, I have adopted many of their leadership attributes into my personal management style today.

My advice for managing a team and maintaining high morale is to treat people as human beings and how YOU would want them to treat you and not “human capital.” Starting daily interactions with “Good morning” or “How are you” goes a long way in setting the tone. Get to know your team members individually to understand their strengths and where their challenges lie so you can coach effectively.

Give sincere compliments and let them know they are genuinely contributing to the success of your business. In return, invest in their visions and dreams for their careers. Demanding that team members only focus on helping you build a dream is selfish. Be supportive and encouraging and don’t think their lives must revolve around one company. Set the boundaries and expectations so that the two can exist together.

Toxic work cultures (and I have been in a few when I was in corporate) do not build high morale, they do not contribute to long-term success, they don’t contribute positively to humanity, and they do not help retain top talent.

The flex in management is building a solid team based on mutual interest in the work and respect toward one another to work together for the common good.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cuisinenoir.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cuisinenoir_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cuisinenoir
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/v-sheree-williams-4690b54/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@globalfoodanddrink
• Other: https://diasporafoodstories.com/

Image Credits

For my profile photo – Etta Media Photography

All the others: The Global Food and Drink Initiative