The Real Star of Thanksgiving

When Mia,* a 40-year-old single woman in L.A., volunteered to make the mac ‘n cheese for her family’s Thanksgiving a few years ago, her aunties agreed, but told her: “This is your only shot. If you mess it up, you’re bringing paper products from now on.”

She’s now a family pariah and the butt of jokes every year. She has yet to live down the shame.

Such is the power of macaroni and cheese in the Black family. On its face, it’s a simple dish to make if you’re a 12-year-old kid looking for an after-school snack before your parents come home. But for a Black holiday? For Thanksgiving? Only the most qualified and most experienced cook should touch the most coveted Black family dish.

However, even those cooks are not immune from scrutiny. Did they make roux or not? How many cheeses did they use? What kind of cheese? Is the top sufficiently brown and bubbly? Is the middle dried out? Are the noodles sticking together?

You see? It’s a science. But not in a “let’s-experiment-with-something-different-this-year” science.

Every family has that one cook who makes it the best. No one should try to edge that person out because Thanksgiving is not the time to experiment. It is what it is. We eat the same dishes every year. Why change perfection?

Happy Thanksgiving!

*Name has been changed.