When designing the museum, the Smithsonian utilized its experience with Mitsitam Café at the National Museum of the American Indian. That cafeteria had been established to familiarize museum-goers with the rich food heritage of indigenous peoples of the Americas. Mitsitam Café not only proved popular and won culinary awards, but made a substantial amount of profit. The idea of regional food stations came from Dr. Jessica B. Harris, a food scholar who researched the food of African Americans from the colonial era to the present and presented her research to the museum's scholarly committee in 2013. Albert Lukas, a supervising chef at Sweet Home Café, traveled the United States for two years to find recipes and interview home cooks and professional chefs. A committee of chefs, curators, and historians spent another two years working out the restaurant's concept, visual design, and menu (the latter of which was designed by executive chef Grant). The final menu was designed not only to showcase the kinds of food African Americans of different regions ate at different times in American history, but also to demonstrate the impact African Americans had on both home cooking and haute cuisine.