Podcasts about southern table

Today, we're in with the First Lady of Jackson State University, LaToya Redd Thompson, Esq. for our first stop, to learn about this year's Mary E. Peoples Scholarship Luncheon, featuring "The View's" Sunny Hostin, Sep. 12th at the Jackson Convention Complex, then we're off to check out what's happening around your neck of the woods before a final stop in Kosciusko for the 4th Annual Mississippi's Hottest Wing Competition at Jason's Southern Table, August 17th! Stay tuned, buckle up and hold on tight for your Next Stop MS! Next Stop, Mississippi is your #1 on-air source for information about upcoming events and attractions across the state. Get to know the real Mississippi! Each week the show's hosts, Germaine Flood and Kamel King, Tourism Development Bureau Manger with Visit Mississippi, highlight well-known and unknown places in Mississippi with the best food, parks, music and arts. They'll not only tell you what's going on in your neck of the woods, but also share the history and people behind the markets, sporting events, concerts, fairs and festivals all over Mississippi. Hear the personal stories and traditions behind that favorite event you attend each year on Next Stop, Mississippi. Check out our Sipp Events calendar to help plan your next trip! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chef Virginia Willis has transformed her life since starting her health journey in 2019. She is now happier mentally and physically, and she has maintained a 65 pound weight loss. Willis has become a cheerleader for those wanting to make their own life changes, saying “If a French-trained Southern chef can do it, you can, too!”  She says a key to success is build guardrails to keep you on your healthy path. List to learn what she means by that---and prepare to be inspired! Willis is a James Beard award-winning cookbook author and television personality, Her books include Fresh Start, Secrets of the Southern Table, Lighten Up, Y'all, Bon Appétit, Y'all, Basic to Brilliant, Y'all, Okra, and GritsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We took the show on the road for Food & Wine's Classic in Aspen, CO at the Wheeler Opera House. First, we welcomed Restaurant Editor Khushbu Shah to talk about restaurant industry trends starting with chefs reclaiming their craft by building systems that allow them to run a restaurant on their schedules and practice "unapologetic cooking." Then Associate Food Editorial Director Chandra Ram joins the conversation to talk about what she's seen in home cooking trends, from translating restaurant-level experiences into a recipe and the lasting change Covid has made in home cooking. Then we talk Southern food with Chef Tiffany Derry of Southern Table and Roots Chicken Shack in Texas. She looks at her relationship to Southern cuisine and how important it is to represent her roots authentically and showcased with a spin. And then, the East Coast editor of The Somm Journal and founder of winewithwanda.com, Wanda Mann, talks to us about the trends in the wine world (hello rosé!) and how people's drink tastes have changed over the last few years.Broadcast dates for this episode:July 7, 2023 (originally aired)Generous listeners like you make The Splendid Table possible. Donate today to support the show

WBZ's Jordan Rich talks with Matt Robinson of matts-meals.com about their Kentucky Derby party and food offerings.

Chef Virginia Willis has transformed her life since starting her health journey in 2019. She is now happier mentally and physically, and she has maintained a 65 pound weight loss. Willis has become a cheerleader for those wanting to make their own life changes, saying “If a French-trained Southern chef can do it, you can, too!”  She says a key to success is build guardrails to keep you on your healthy path. List to learn what she means by that---and prepare to be inspired! Willis is a James Beard award-winning cookbook author and television personality, Her books include Fresh Start, Secrets of the Southern Table, Lighten Up, Y'all, Bon Appétit, Y'all, Basic to Brilliant, Y'all, Okra, and GritsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tip of the Tongue is a podcast on the Nitty Grits Network of the National Food & Beverage Foundation (NatFAB). The podcast host, Liz Williams, is the Founder of NatFAB and the Southern Food & Beverage Museum. In each episode Liz has a far-reaching 30 minute conversation with a food expert, practitioner, chef, home cook, author, farmer, manufacturer, artist, or almost anyonewho can elucidate some aspect of culinary culture. And the intersection of food and drink with culture provides possibilities that reflect the endless ways that food touches every aspect of our lives. We are all joined together by our need to eat. And Tip of the Tongue explores our common humanity whether by examining the past, aesthetics, economics, issues of race and gender, waste, hunger, war, and so much more. And by recording and disseminating these expansive conversations she is creating a document that reflects and embraces the culture of food during our time.

Sadaya "Daisy" Lewis and Modern Southern Table (Inspiring Women, Episode 43) On this episode of Inspiring Women, Sadaya “Daisy” Lewis discussed the challenges of managing her restaurant and catering business during the pandemic, developing another product line, dealing with both family and funding challenges, and much more. The host of Inspiring Women is Betty Collins […] The post Sadaya "Daisy" Lewis and Modern Southern Table appeared first on Business RadioX ®.

Modern Southern Table owner, Sadaya “Daisy” Lewis, started her restaurant and catering business seven years ago, combining her experience cooking southern-style cuisine and an MBA in marketing and finance from Capital University, Lewis has built an incredible southern comfort food concept offering fried chicken, gumbo, macaroni and cheese, and other southern classics. I like to call her the "comeback kid." First off, Daisy talks about working with restauranteur Cameron Mitchell... Cameron has been just like the Big Brother (to me), being there to support. Always there to have advice (on pricing and branding) if needed. Catering took a bit hit in 2020. And her business was no exception. So when the governor DeWine said no events and he shut down the city of Columbus, you know, we thought it was going to be two weeks, three weeks. We thought it was going to be a little bit. But when he said no large gatherings, no weddings, my calendar cleared almost instantly. People started immediately calling, asking for refunds, asking to reschedule, asking to cancel. But all business owners hit a point where they go, what the heck just happened? Daisy talks about the comeback. I left Corporate America a few years earlier, so I really didn't want to go back to that. And so I knew like I can't cater, but there has to be something else you can do that will allow you to bring income in because you have a family to feed. And I started paying attention to what was happening around me on social media. Everybody had fallen into this situational depression. And one thing that was making us feel better was to eat or get some sweets. And I hate to say I took advantage of that horrible stress eating. But I did notice it with my peers and other businesses that the dessert industry had all of a sudden skyrocketed due to people were eating through their depression.​ So she relaunched. So the hardest part for me with Little Daisy Cakes was starting a business all over again and trying to find new clientele and basically just start all over again. This was a whole new business. People weren't familiar with my desserts. And so the hardest role was just relaunching and starting an all new venture, starting from zero. Modern Southern Table This is THE podcast that advances women toward economic, social, and political achievement. Hosted by Betty Collins, CPA, and Director at Brady Ware and Company. Betty also serves as the Committee Chair for Empowering Women, and Director of the Brady Ware Women Initiative. Each episode is presented by Brady Ware and Company, committed to empowering women to go their distance in the workplace and at home. For more information, go to the Resources page at Brady Ware and Company. Remember to follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.  And forward our podcast along to other Inspiring Women in your life.

In today's episode, I talk to Chef Tiffany Derry of Roots Chicken Shak and Roots Southern Table. From the comfort of these Dallas, Texas kitchens, she's taken Southern food to new heights. Inspired by the dishes her family made when she was young, she always felt that this cuisine deserved a place at the table. And since no one else had done it to the level she was searching for, she sprung into action.  You'll hear about the concept behind Roots Southern Table and her smaller operation Roots Chicken Shak, and you'll get a little taste of the Chicken Sandwich that's making them famous. She also talks about the misconceptions people have about Southern cuisine, what makes it so unique, and why it deserves to be honored and shared. She also talks about what it's really like to be a chef on TV and a prominent voice for the long-held traditions of Southern food.  What you'll learn with chef Tiffany Derry The phone call that changed her life (3:31) How being on Top Chef changed her (4:55) What drives her towards the adrenaline rush of competition (7:43) How she learned to appreciate her Southern roots (8:31) The misconceptions of Southern food (9:30) The best fried chicken sandwich in Dallas (11:00) Why she keeps the menu small (12:50) How Roots Southern Table was finally born (14:00) The family memories that inspired the menu (15:20) What “Southern food” means to her (17:07) Representing as Black female chef when there were few others (20:12) How she's paying it forward to other aspiring female chefs (22:21) The fresh angle of her new TV show on PBS (23:29) The truth about Gordon Ramsay (27:03) Her absolute favorite ingredient to cook with (27:56) How the menu is divided at Southern Kitchen (29:11) The one thing everyone tries to steal from the table (30:25) Her other sources of culinary inspiration (31:29) How to make her mom's Bacon, Egg & Rice dish (33:33) The Southern dish that most reminds her of childhood (35:19) Her top food stops in Dallas (36:11) Her favorite guilty pleasure and how enjoys it without blowing her diet (39:02) A French-inspired Southern duck dish (40:41) Her most influential cookbooks (42:04) Series of rapid-fire questions. Link to the podcast episode on Apple Podcast Links to other episodes in Dallas Conversation with Chef Misti Norris from Petra and The Beast Links to most downloaded episodes (click on any picture to listen to the episode) Jeremy Umansky in Cleveland 3 Chefs in Austin - What is more important: techniques or creativity? Misti Norris in Dallas Carlo Lamagna in Portland #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 25%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */ Scallops, Corn Ravioli by Chef Tiffany Derry My Mother's Gumbo by Chef Tiffany Derry Heirloom Tomato Salad from Roots Southern Table Roots Southern Table Cornbread Click to tweet There are just so many different people who make up the south and created what we consider to be Southern cuisine. Southern cuisine is not anywhere else in the world. They didn't bring that from somewhere, it was a melding of all of these different people coming together.
 Click To Tweet I wanted Southern Table to be almost like an homage to the way I grew up, the things that I love the most about my family's farm, and picking greens and being able to transition that into something so delicious.
 Click To Tweet The one thing I wanted and I craved was the foods I grew up eating that were not being represented well.

"This isn't just food to be digested, this is a way of knowing, being and connecting." - Joshua Hamilton, Director African American Student Affairs Welcome to the Food & Culture Series is a celebration, of food and the story it tells. Culture is for everybody and today we are talking to Joshua Hamilton about Southern food, specifically BBQ, his memories and the connection food and community. Links mentioned in the show: High on the Hog- by Jessica B. Harris High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America (Netflix) Black Food Matters by Hanna Garth and Ashanté M Reese Jubilee Cookbook Local eateries mentioned on the show: Cookin Wit Cort Chef Wang Zemam's Restaurant D's Island Grill CeeDee Jamaican Kitchen Off The Hook Seafood Ken's Hardwood BBQ Thank you for listening. Read the Transcript for the show HERE Thank you for listening we are Nutrition Navigators, a program at Campus Health, in Health Promotion, here at the University of Arizona. Our mission is to have students navigate nutrition and have a healthy relationship with food and body. Please consider leaving us a rating & review to help others find our show, or share with friends! Please let us know how we can better serve you and take our short SURVEY!!! Thanks for listening and Be Well Wildcats!! Connect with Campus Health and send us your feedback! Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube We are sponsored by Campus Health, Health Promotion and Preventive Services!

WRITER'S BLOCK: Celebrate Pride Month! Members of the LGBTQ community join host Ron Block to discuss their latest books and writing journeys. Guests are: Steven Rowley (The Guncle), P.J. Vernon (Bath Haus) and James Beard Award winning Chef, Virginia Willis (The Secrets of the Southern Table).

Houston's favorite executive chef - Sam Aceituno-Zaldana. Sam is the GM/Executive Chef at The Moonshiners Southern Table & Bar, in downtown Houston. If you haven't been, you're missing out! In this episode, Sam talks about the origins of the Moonshiners, future expansion plans for the company, and of course the mouth watering food being served up in downtown Houston. Sam also discusses the great relationship that has been fostered between The Moonshiners and Astro's 3rd Baseman, Alex Bregman. Follow Sam on IG @chefboyaresam & Twitter: @saceituno87 Follow the Moonshiners IG @themoonshinerssoutherntablebar Twitter: @TheMoonshinersH https://themoonshinershouston.com/ Follow Jon and Mike on Instagram @curiositywithjonandmike Follow Jon and Mike on Facebook @curiositywithjonandmike

Author Rebecca Lang--a professionally trained chef and lifelong Southerner shows that every meal of the day is important when you gather around the Southern Table.

Welcome to DeVonta's World! On Episode 15, DeVonta' talks about Houston, Texas, and the experiences that engulfed him and one place that just wasn't it. The Turkey Leg Hut 4830 Almeda Rd suite a/b Houston, TX Ratings: 5/5 10/10 Prospect Park 3100 Fountain View Houston, TX Ratings: 5/5 Stars 10/10 The Moonshiners: Southern Table Bar + Grill 1000 Prairie St Houston, TX Ratings: 4/5 Stars 9/10 #ADPartner: Download the Audible app and receive a 30-Day Free Trial and FREE BOOK NOW. Click the link below and start your audible experience today! www.audibletrail.com/tobpodcast #ADPartner: To All my Black Queens! Be sure to check out #AMarieBeauty for all your Lash needs and my sis is certified/licensed Lash technician. 3D Lahses, 5D Lashes, Mink Lashes, or some Lash glue..#AMarieBeauty got you. Subscribe to their website and take 15%OFF YOUR WHOLE ORDER. SHOP NOW! Website: https://www.loveamariebeauty.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amariebeautyllc/ Follow Us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/__dwpodcast/ If you would like to make a donation to our podcast & network, click the link below: www.tyronzahicks.com/donate If you're interested in collaborating becoming an Advertising Partner with us and T.O.B. Podcast, please click below for information: www.tyronzahicks.com/advertisingpartners If you would like to invest in our podcast, click the link below and let's a network: https://www.tyronzahicks.com/contact-us

Episode Notes Things we talk about in this episode -Frida: https://www.instagram.com/adognamedfrida/ Sweet Paws Rescue: https://www.sweetpawsrescue.org/ Localeur: https://www.localeur.com/ Flight Club Darts Boston: http://us.flightclubdarts.com/boston/ Volkswagon dealership: https://www.vwmedford.com/ Dan on Home and Family: https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/home-and-family/videos/homemade-tots-with-spicy-cheese-sauce-home-and-family Jubilee: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PBR3PMQ/ Secrets of the Southern Table: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07776K8Q5/ Gardein: https://www.gardein.com/ Breville Combi Wave: https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/microwaves/bmo870.html Bar Cino Brookline: https://barcino.com/brookline/ Micheal Kiwanuka: https://www.michaelkiwanuka.com/ Wine: https://www.cavalieredoro.com/ Beer: http://www.bentwaterbrewing.com/Find out more at https://please-at-me.pinecast.co

Support for The Zest Podcast comes from Seitenbacher Brand Natural Foods, like Muesli cereals, oils, oatmeal, energy bars, gluten free fruit gummies for the kids, organic coffee and more.  Available in supermarkets, health food stores or online at Seitenbacher.com.Best-selling author Rick Bragg was in town earlier this year to talk about his most recent memoir about his family, and about growing up poor in the hardscrabble back country of Alabama. He tells it through stories of food -- and the importance of a good meal in lives full of backbreaking labor and few pleasures. His book, The Best Cook In The World: Tales from My Momma's Southern Table, is also a loving tribute to his mother, Margaret.How can a simple sandwich ignite so much controversy? Well, when it's the Cuban Sandwich, and we're in Florida, there is a bitter battle for the title of who had it first, and who makes it the best! Producer Dalia Colón spoke to Andrea Gonzmart Williams of the Columbia Restaurant, who doesn't think there any controversy at all. You can find the Columbia's Cuban Sandwich recipe HERE.When Dan Bavaro packed up his wife and kids to move from New Jersey to Florida, he didn't have his sights set on opening a New York-style pizzeria. Instead, Bavaro's Pizza serves up Neapolitan-style pies, bringing a taste of Italy to its four Tampa Bay locations.What was once a vacant lot is now an urban oasis. We take you to the St. Petersburg EcoVillage, a community garden whose mission is to reconnect people with nature. Dalia surveys the bounty with Emmanuel Roux, a longtime restaurateur who's using his food knowledge to educate the public about nutrition.Ed Chiles is the son of the late Governor Lawton Chiles. He's also the owner of several seafood restaurants, including the Sandbar on Anna Maria Island. Chiles's interest in local and sustainable food sourcing has led him to experiment with cooking one of the state's invasive species -- wild hogs. I spoke to him about some of the ways his restaurants' chefs have been utilizing wild boars from Shogun Farms.Many well-known local restaurants swear by the sausages they get from The Tambuzzo Sausage company of Tampa. The butchery recently opened up its new location in West Tampa, alongside the company's cafe, "The Boozy Pig." Owner Andrew Tambuzzo says it's a new chapter in what's been a very old tradition for his family in Ybor City. He spoke with me in front of The Boozy Pig on Cypress street about changes in his new neighborhood and his business.When Isabel Laessig's daughter left for college, she told her mom that the thing she'd miss most was their Sunday family dinner together. Eight years later,the Dunedin mother of four is the force behind #SundaySupper, a weekly virtual dinner party where foodies share recipes and inspiration for family meals. Laessig, also known as Family Foodie, reaches millions of people through social media, promoting her Sunday Supper Movement. 

Support for The Zest Podcast comes from Seitenbacher Brand Natural Foods, like Muesli cereals, oils, oatmeal, energy bars, gluten free fruit gummies for the kids, organic coffee and more.  Available in supermarkets, health food stores or online at Seitenbacher.com.Best-selling author Rick Bragg was in town earlier this year to talk about his most recent memoir about his family, and about growing up poor in the hardscrabble back country of Alabama. He tells it through stories of food -- and the importance of a good meal in lives full of backbreaking labor and few pleasures. His book, The Best Cook In The World: Tales from My Momma's Southern Table, is also a loving tribute to his mother, Margaret.How can a simple sandwich ignite so much controversy? Well, when it's the Cuban Sandwich, and we're in Florida, there is a bitter battle for the title of who had it first, and who makes it the best! Producer Dalia Colón spoke to Andrea Gonzmart Williams of the Columbia Restaurant, who doesn't think there any controversy at all. You can find the Columbia's Cuban Sandwich recipe HERE.When Dan Bavaro packed up his wife and kids to move from New Jersey to Florida, he didn't have his sights set on opening a New York-style pizzeria. Instead, Bavaro's Pizza serves up Neapolitan-style pies, bringing a taste of Italy to its four Tampa Bay locations.What was once a vacant lot is now an urban oasis. We take you to the St. Petersburg EcoVillage, a community garden whose mission is to reconnect people with nature. Dalia surveys the bounty with Emmanuel Roux, a longtime restaurateur who's using his food knowledge to educate the public about nutrition.Ed Chiles is the son of the late Governor Lawton Chiles. He's also the owner of several seafood restaurants, including the Sandbar on Anna Maria Island. Chiles's interest in local and sustainable food sourcing has led him to experiment with cooking one of the state's invasive species -- wild hogs. I spoke to him about some of the ways his restaurants' chefs have been utilizing wild boars from Shogun Farms.Many well-known local restaurants swear by the sausages they get from The Tambuzzo Sausage company of Tampa. The butchery recently opened up its new location in West Tampa, alongside the company's cafe, "The Boozy Pig." Owner Andrew Tambuzzo says it's a new chapter in what's been a very old tradition for his family in Ybor City. He spoke with me in front of The Boozy Pig on Cypress street about changes in his new neighborhood and his business.When Isabel Laessig's daughter left for college, she told her mom that the thing she'd miss most was their Sunday family dinner together. Eight years later,the Dunedin mother of four is the force behind #SundaySupper, a weekly virtual dinner party where foodies share recipes and inspiration for family meals. Laessig, also known as Family Foodie, reaches millions of people through social media, promoting her Sunday Supper Movement. 

Award-winning cookbook author and southern food chronicler, Virginia Willis, discusses the unique global culinary diversity of the American South - a delicious hodgepodge based on history, heritage, handed-down customs and hard work. Willis is author of Secrets of the Southern Table, which takes readers on a journey throughout the southern states to share the stories of local food purveyors, farmers, fisherman and other producers. www.VirginiaWillis.com This show is broadcast live on Wednesday's at 2PM ET on W4CY Radio – (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (http://www.talk4radio.com/) on the Talk 4 Media Network (http://www.talk4media.com/).

Southern storyteller Rick Bragg talks with host Robin Sussingham about food, family, and his new memoir, “The Best Cook In The World: Tales From My Momma's Southern Table.” Food, Bragg says, represents “our finer nature.” And he tells us why he takes the cooking of grits so personally. Plus, on a humid evening in April,The Zest attended WUSF's signature event, Longest Table, an outdoor foodie feast in downtown St. Petersburg that offered a chance for Robin and producer Dalia Colón  to ask local chefs what they like to serve when the weather heats up.

Southern storyteller Rick Bragg talks with host Robin Sussingham about food, family, and his new memoir, “The Best Cook In The World: Tales From My Momma's Southern Table.” Food, Bragg says, represents “our finer nature.” And he tells us why he takes the cooking of grits so personally. Plus, on a humid evening in April,The Zest attended WUSF's signature event, Longest Table, an outdoor foodie feast in downtown St. Petersburg that offered a chance for Robin and producer Dalia Colón  to ask local chefs what they like to serve when the weather heats up.

Gather around the Southern Table and learn how to cook like you're from the south with Rebecca Lang.

Southern cuisine is having a moment! Whether you were raised in the south or you're simply curious about the food, recipes, and farming culture from this diverse U.S. region, I hope you'll tune in to hear my interview with Georgia-born chef and cookbook author, Virginia Willis. Virginia is the author of the gorgeous new cookbook, Secrets of the Southern Table, and she's here with tips for stocking a southern pantry, nutritious recipes your family will love -- including a sweet potato and pecan bread that's to die for, spatchcock chicken, and the best sweet potato & greens gratin recipe on the planet -- and family stories that shaped her love of southern cooking. What you’ll hear in this episode: Southern cuisine is defined as diverse foods from the 13 states in the south, which has a year-round growing season. Why the always-growing immigrant population of the south means the cuisine is always evolving Traditional Southern food includes healthy superstars like corn, tomatoes, butterbeans, green beans, okra, eggplant, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Okra, is a polarizing vegetable, and the key to culinary success is to lightly cook it. Virginia loves to grill or broil it and pair it with an acid, like tomatoes). Virginia’s culinary path: She grew up with fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden in a family of adventurous cooks who loved a variety of foods. What family dinner looked like for Virginia when she was growing up complete with good manners, politeness, and respect for the food. Virginia’s weeknight Southern family go-to: a one-pot or skillet meal with sauteed greens or veggies with seared boneless chicken thighs sprinkled with Cajun seasoning. Tips for parents: get kids’ hands into the food prep process. (Hint: make taco night more healthy.) Virginia’s book, a celebration of the South, and why she included stories of different farmers and ethnic groups. We are giving away a copy of Secrets of the Southern Table. (Giveaway ends Feb. 27th, 2019.) How Virginia grew up eating “gospel bird” every Sunday. Virginia’s favorite recipe from the book: Spatchcock Sorghum Chicken. Brine it first, then cut out the backbone and open the chicken like a book (this cuts down on cooking time and allows more even cooking). Season with butter, smoked paprika, and sorghum (or honey). Other favorite recipes from the book: Smashed fried okra with spicy yogurt dipping sauce Spiced sweet potato and pecan breakfast bread: it’s made with a large sweet potato, whole wheat flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, black pepper, brown sugar, applesauce, eggs, pecans, and flax seeds Savory sweet potato and greens gratin, which bakes up rich and creamy, with a panko and Parmesan topping Seared scallops with radish and candied jalapeño Peach upside-down cake (use cake flour for a lighter texture) Virginia’s tips for cooking collard greens, which are higher in nutritional value than kale! Virginia’s work for Martha Stewart as the kitchen director for the TV series. She was in charge of all the food and all the farmers’ market shopping! Coming up next for Virginia is a more internationally-focused book, as she ventures away from strictly Southern cooking. Resources: Virginia's website: https://virginiawillis.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/virginiawillis  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/virginiawillis/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChefVirginiaWillis/  Virginia's cookbooks: https://virginiawillis.com/cookbooks.html  Secrets of the Southern Table on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544932544/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0  Link to How to Spatchcock a Chicken:  https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/01/the-food-lab-how-to-roast-a-butterflied-spatchcocked-chicken.html  www.superhealthykids.com www.parentsondemand.com

Southern cuisine is having a moment! Whether you were raised in the south or you're simply curious about the food, recipes, and farming culture from this diverse U.S. region, I hope you'll tune in to hear my interview with Georgia-born chef and cookbook author, Virginia Willis. Virginia is the author of the gorgeous new cookbook, Secrets of the Southern Table, and she's here with tips for stocking a southern pantry, nutritious recipes your family will love -- including a sweet potato and pecan bread that's to die for, spatchcock chicken, and the best sweet potato & greens gratin recipe on the planet -- and family stories that shaped her love of southern cooking. What you’ll hear in this episode: Southern cuisine is defined as diverse foods from the 13 states in the south, which has a year-round growing season. Why the always-growing immigrant population of the south means the cuisine is always evolving Traditional Southern food includes healthy superstars like corn, tomatoes, butterbeans, green beans, okra, eggplant, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Okra, is a polarizing vegetable, and the key to culinary success is to lightly cook it. Virginia loves to grill or broil it and pair it with an acid, like tomatoes). Virginia’s culinary path: She grew up with fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden in a family of adventurous cooks who loved a variety of foods. What family dinner looked like for Virginia when she was growing up complete with good manners, politeness, and respect for the food. Virginia’s weeknight Southern family go-to: a one-pot or skillet meal with sauteed greens or veggies with seared boneless chicken thighs sprinkled with Cajun seasoning. Tips for parents: get kids’ hands into the food prep process. (Hint: make taco night more healthy.) Virginia’s book, a celebration of the South, and why she included stories of different farmers and ethnic groups. We are giving away a copy of Secrets of the Southern Table. (Giveaway ends Feb. 27th, 2019.) How Virginia grew up eating “gospel bird” every Sunday. Virginia’s favorite recipe from the book: Spatchcock Sorghum Chicken. Brine it first, then cut out the backbone and open the chicken like a book (this cuts down on cooking time and allows more even cooking). Season with butter, smoked paprika, and sorghum (or honey). Other favorite recipes from the book: Smashed fried okra with spicy yogurt dipping sauce Spiced sweet potato and pecan breakfast bread: it’s made with a large sweet potato, whole wheat flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, black pepper, brown sugar, applesauce, eggs, pecans, and flax seeds Savory sweet potato and greens gratin, which bakes up rich and creamy, with a panko and Parmesan topping Seared scallops with radish and candied jalapeño Peach upside-down cake (use cake flour for a lighter texture) Virginia’s tips for cooking collard greens, which are higher in nutritional value than kale! Virginia’s work for Martha Stewart as the kitchen director for the TV series. She was in charge of all the food and all the farmers’ market shopping! Coming up next for Virginia is a more internationally-focused book, as she ventures away from strictly Southern cooking. Resources: Virginia's website: https://virginiawillis.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/virginiawillis  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/virginiawillis/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChefVirginiaWillis/  Virginia's cookbooks: https://virginiawillis.com/cookbooks.html  Secrets of the Southern Table on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544932544/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0  Link to How to Spatchcock a Chicken:  https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/01/the-food-lab-how-to-roast-a-butterflied-spatchcocked-chicken.html  www.superhealthykids.com www.parentsondemand.com

My 2018 Cookbook Year in Review with Bonnie Benwick, deputy food editor and recipes editor of The Washington Post. (Photo credit Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post) Intro: Welcome to The Cookery By The Book Podcast with Suzy Chase. She's just a home cook in New York City sitting at her dining room table talking to cookbook authors.Bonnie Benwick: I'm Bonnie Benwick, deputy food editor and recipes editor of The Washington Post Food Section.Suzy Chase: So you're the deputy food editor and recipes editor of The Washington Post, where you've worked since 1989. How old were you when you discovered your love of cooking and cookbooks?Bonnie Benwick: I think cooking, definitely when I was about nine years old. My mom was a nurse and so she wouldn't be at home when I came home from school. There was an afternoon help to sort of, it was not quite a babysitter, not quite a maid type person, but just someone who was around because it made my parents feel better about that. But my mom would leave instructions or she would call me from the office and say, "Take this out of the freezer." She was a big freezer cook. Defrost vegetables, put them in a pot, do this, do that. I was kind of her prep cook from very early on. I remember when I was nine I also had my first experience with a pressure cooker, you know those scary kinds with the-Suzy Chase: Yes.Bonnie Benwick: Reports things landing on the ceiling, which never happened to me, by the way. But my father really liked tongue and that's kind of one of the scummier things to cook in a pressure cooker, I think, but I was all in. That was my job. Also made borscht for him. He came home almost daily to have lunch and borscht was his thing. So between that and whatever, I was totally ... I'm just in love with making things in the kitchen, creative and fun and you get to eat it. Cookbooks, I think I ... That's a little harder to pin down for me. My mom had an old settlement cookbook that we might talk about later that she got when she was married. I used to look through that a lot and ask her questions, but she wasn't really a cook by the book kind of a person. I had an aunt who devised her own recipes and everything that she made, she would label it with Aunt Sally's best blueberry muffins, Aunt Sally's best lemon pancakes. I just thought naturally, everything she made was the best. So that was kind of a segue to looking in books that had really good recipes. I guess I landed in this ... That's a scary number, 1989, isn't it? I came to The Washington Post part-time and then went full-time when my kids got a little older. I've been in the food section for almost half that time that I've been at the Post and that's really where I wanted to be. Luckily, I've just landed in this job where I get to look at all the cookbooks I want all the time and talk to the people who put them together, which is always kind of been a little thrill for me.Suzy Chase: In the first line of you December 11th piece in The Washington Post, you wrote, "To be honest, we compilers of Best Of lists are never quite sure about what you, dear readers, want most from the cookbook division." Could you take us through the process, like how many cookbooks do you start with usually and what's the criteria?Bonnie Benwick: Well as you know since you have a cookbook podcast, they tend to come out in publishing clusters during the year. There's a spring graduating class and there are some in the summer that have to do with summer cooking and grilling, but the fall is really, heading into September, that's really the big crush where people tend to remember books most, and give them as gifts, and book reviewers like myself will test out of them quite religiously because we get these advance copies, galley copies way ahead, months ahead of pub dates. So I try to remember the ones that come earlier in the year, but people tend to hold off and really wait. The big crush of them, like I said, is that fall time. I think I must look through several hundred books a year. I don't obviously get to write about all of them, but I can see a little bit about trends in publishing and what people were after. It wasn't hard to spot the dozens and dozens of instant pot titles this year.Suzy Chase: Oh yeah.Bonnie Benwick: So specific that it got down to six ingredients in 20 minutes in your so and so kind of instant pot. It was just like every ... And I think it's going to keep coming, by the way. But then the next sort of round, the books that I tend to stockpile on my desk, or under my desk, or in a special closet that we have. I'll put Post-It notes. I'm a Post-It notes person. I'll tag recipes that I'm interested in, and if a book has got a hefty number of them, I set it aside for a possible best of the year, and try recipes. You also probably wouldn't be surprised to learn that not all recipes in cookbooks work very well.Suzy Chase: Yep, exactly.Bonnie Benwick: Yep. For one reason or another, so we we just make sure that a book that I recommend to people I've been through and spot tested enough that I feel confident that they get good use out of it. I also tend to like a practical, tend to recommend a practical book, something that I think people will not just ... It's not really based on a trend or anything, but it's something that actually teaches them something, kind of a life skill like a bread book, for example, a bread baking book. They've just gotten much better describing things and giving you step by step photos and sort of eliminating a lot of the anxiety in that process, I think, for a lot of people, or trying to eliminate what seems like a hard time and hard work and this that and the other thing.Suzy Chase: I find I'm super interested in the story, if the cookbook comes with a story of a region or a culture.Bonnie Benwick: You mentioned that you like, your Nick Sharma's Season is your favorite of this year?Suzy Chase: Yeah.Bonnie Benwick: I think a lot of what his success was, he had this column in The Chronicle, but other than the beautiful brown hands photography that he did that had such depth to it, I think, it was not only the cuisine that he was cooking, but the story of his life, and what food means to him, and what goes into it when he's cooking. Don't you think?Suzy Chase: It was so heartfelt, and so real, and so honest. I think it's a story that we haven't heard before. That's what got me.Bonnie Benwick: Yes. It seems this year there were more voices. I went for ... I always try to have a more inclusive list in my list of the year, Best of the Year lists tend to be longer than everybody else's. I know I was kind of complaining about, how could I narrow it down, but it seemed to be echoed in several other end of the year lists that I've seen so far. It's like they're all, cookbooks are just getting better. It's not necessarily that they're getting edited better, but we're just hearing from more voices and there are more cuisines out there that are more accessible to people because of the way we shop, or available things online, or that we're all so interested in. There are more people who are reading cookbooks for the stories they tell, not just for recipes that they give you.Suzy Chase: Can you describe the overall quality of cookbooks released this year?Bonnie Benwick: I was pretty impressed. Even the instant pot books, they went after trying to show you specifically what I think is the cuisines that call for a lot of long, slow cooking, Mexican, Indian, even French, all the braises that happen in French cooking, just translate really well to the instant pot. You have to know what buttons to push and how long to do certain steps. The fact that you can sautee chicken before you stew it for minutes instead of hours, that kind of thing. I thought that was pretty good and there's also those books like the Japan book that I recommended. It was just to me a really beautiful attempt at picking and choosing Japanese recipes that are not intimidating, that don't call for a lot of ingredients, that don't have you making your own dashi every five minutes, although there is some of that. But I just thought it was a beautiful attempt at, and this has nothing to do with appropriation culturally. But the author, Nancy Hachisu lived there long enough that she was able to study the cuisine and cook with different Japanese cooks and chefs. So I felt that she had that western sensibility to translate and explain those recipes and choose the ones that she thought would appeal to people like me. So if you've been to Japan, if you're in love with the culture, if you like that way of eating, I thought it was a really nice entrée. Plus, it's just a beautiful book.Suzy Chase: Yeah. I find that all Phaidon books are beautiful, like coffee table books. It's interesting to hear how that cookbook rose to the occasion for you because sometimes I feel like they aren't really that practical, that they're more pretty to look at.Bonnie Benwick: Yeah, definitely. They care about the packaging of the thing, and usually there's some, I wouldn't call it a marketing device, but there's something about the way that they present the material and there's always so many recipes in every Phaidon book, right? There are like-Suzy Chase: A million, yeah.Bonnie Benwick: Yeah, and that you can't really, unless it comes with one of those little ribbons, how are you going to keep that open?Suzy Chase: Well, some of them come with two ribbons.Bonnie Benwick: That's true, I remember Spanish Foods or something from years ago. Yeah, but again, it's not like I've cooked out of a lot of them. So this was a bit of a surprise to me. They always look really pretty, but unless I'm totally wrong about this, it seems like those are kind of giftable. Is that a word? That's not a word.Suzy Chase: Yeah, I think it is a word.Bonnie Benwick: They're good for gifts. It's a book that you present to somebody else. I'm not sure that I've ever seen one that someone has just demolished by cooking through it and breaking the spine and doing something like that. So coffee table sounds about right.Suzy Chase: Cookbook sales soared 25% this year. Does that surprise you at all?Bonnie Benwick: You know, my editor Joe Union and Cathy Barrow, who is the author of Pie Squared, was also on my list and she's a columnist for us and a friend of mine. Full disclosure, she lives in DC. We're talking about this recently and I think that number might be a little skewed by the overall sales, but the book that's really crushed everybody else, and I'm talking Ottolenghi, and Ina Garten, and Dory Greenspan, and all the people that you think sell really well, 10 times over their heads, five times over their heads is the Joanna Gaines Magnolia Table.Suzy Chase: Really?Bonnie Benwick: Have you looked through that?Suzy Chase: Yeah. I've just flipped through it. Wow.Bonnie Benwick: Well, it's almost like food is an afterthought to this empire that she and her husband and their multiple children have built. It's that lifestyle branding, I think, that maybe she took a page from Gwenyth Paltrow or something, but it really seemed to click in. She has far outstripped Pioneer Woman, a distant second she is. But I think Joanna Gaines, I think for just fall numbers for her, I heard something like she had sold a million copies.Suzy Chase: Wow.Bonnie Benwick: That's just in September. Yeah.Suzy Chase: People love her.Bonnie Benwick: That's crazy.Suzy Chase: They make pilgrimages to that darn place in Waco that they have.Bonnie Benwick: Yeah, I think she made it a whole, revitalized the industry, and more power to her. I just don't know really where her recipes come from. I haven't researched it enough and I haven't cooked out of the book, although it's on my desk at work. I feel like I need to give it a shot because people are buying it for some reason, right? That alone I think has skewed the overall numbers. If you look at Publisher's Weekly stats, it tends to be not that much different from last year if you take her off the top.Suzy Chase: In the same vein, it's no shocker that I'm not a fan of celebrity cookbooks, so tell me about Cravings: Hungry For More, Chrissy Teigen's latest cookbook. That was on your list too.Bonnie Benwick: Yeah. The thing about her is I think she's funny. I do believe that she likes being in the kitchen, but the thing that she was really smart about is she got a very smart recipe developer-Suzy Chase: Adeena Sussman, yep.Bonnie Benwick: Absolutely. Don't we love her? We love her.Suzy Chase: We love her.Bonnie Benwick: Right. So you know the recipes are gonna be okay and it looks like and sounds like, by all accounts, they have a really good time when they're in the kitchen together. Plus, she's kind of, I'm a little bit of an evangelist in that if Chrissy Teigen has made it easier for some people to do more cooking or to see that there's a simple joy in it, then I can go there. She even included, I came across one recipe in her book that she said, the head notes really are entertaining, as she is, that she said something like, "Yep, this recipe was in the last book. It's so good we put it in here again. Sue me." It was just a whimsical thing. She can do it. She's a super celebrity star, mom, whatever. I don't know, it just kind of tickled me.Suzy Chase: I went to the book launch that she did with Twitter here in New York City. It was packed. The line was out the door and people were just excited about her food, about listening to her talk. She has a whole thing like Joanna Gaines going on too.Bonnie Benwick: Yeah. Does she have her own line of lamps, and sheets, and towels, and stuff like that though? I don't know if she's gonna do that.Suzy Chase: I think she has her own line of pots and pans at Target.Bonnie Benwick: Well, yeah.Suzy Chase: So there you go.Bonnie Benwick: We're just envious. We want our own line of pots and pans too.Suzy Chase: We're just bitter.Bonnie Benwick: Like I said, I'm happy for her and at least in celebrity cookbooks for sure, you're gonna come across 25 pictures of them in the pages of the cookbook? But hers are obviously staged and they're funny. Plus, she's kind of beautiful so it's something for everybody to look at.Suzy Chase: So onto Nigella, it's her 12th cookbook. What was special about this one, At My Table?Bonnie Benwick: Up front, I have to disclose I'm a total anglophile. Usually during the year, I troll BBC food, I read the columnists, I'm in love with Diana Henry. Ever since Nigella's first book, it seems like I've been following her. I think when the first one came out, the domestic goddess one, I was working in the commentary section, the outlook section of the Post, and it just so happened one of the editors had gone to Oxford with her and was a roommate with her for a time. So she told me this story about how Nigella used to throw these dinner parties all the time when she was in college. It seemed authentic. It seemed like her love of food and the fact that she was this homegrown cook, not a chef, was doing her own thing. She's got such a love of ... She's such a good writer. I love the way that she plucks words out of the air, that she'll call something squidgy and she makes it sound like a million bucks. She does have kind of an economy of language when she's writing recipes and head notes, but they tend to conjure these images that you get. I just like that she's keeping on, keeping on. It seems when a new book of hers comes out, and they haven't all been fabulous. I wasn't a huge fan of Nigellissima, whatever, her take on Italian food and stuff, but I just appreciate that she's still around and still doing her thing so well.Suzy Chase: I used to love that show.Bonnie Benwick: Do you like her?Suzy Chase: Yeah, I loved her show. Remember that show?Bonnie Benwick: Oh yeah.Suzy Chase: What was it called? Something ... I don't know. But she was a lot curvier.Bonnie Benwick: Yeah, she was in the kitchen. Yes, and she-Suzy Chase: And she loved to eat.Bonnie Benwick: But she's also had this ... Yes, that sort of late night thing in the fridge was just genius, right? Who else was doing that?Suzy Chase: We all do that, yep. I was so excited to see seven of the cookbooks on your list were featured on my podcast this year, which is super exciting.Bonnie Benwick: Don't we have good taste?Suzy Chase: Look at us. What about Secrets of the Southern Table by Virginia Willis? Talk a little bit about that.Bonnie Benwick: Have you ever met or been in her presence?Suzy Chase: She was on my podcast.Bonnie Benwick: That's great. How long ago?Suzy Chase: She kicked off season four in September.Bonnie Benwick: That's really great. I totally admire her. I've known her for a long time. She has these kind of bona fides that I really admire. She's a trained chef, she did the classic French training thing, but she also very early on got into the business of making it accessible for people through television. She worked at Martha Stewart, she worked at the elbow of Natalie Dupree. She learned how to present food to people in a way that I think is not chef-y even though she's a very good chef. She understands how real folks cook and in this book, she was explaining origins of southern food in a way and did a lot of research and traveling around for it that I'm sure she told you about. One story that I was particularly taken with was this almond pudding that you make very simply with almond milk and gelatin. It's a southern thing, but it was actually Chinese. She explained how the Chinese people came to the south, and how they learned to cook, and how their tradition sort of got melded into southern culture, which I really hadn't read much about. So I appreciate the fact that she did the homework and is passing along information like that. For me it enriches, like you said, it enriches the story of a cookbook, don't you think?Suzy Chase: I learned so much from that cookbook. I think she needs to do a companion PBS series just on what she learned traveling around in the south, the history of food in the south.Bonnie Benwick: That would be great. She's really great on television. Plus, if you talk to her for three minutes, I end up sort of saying, "Well, hey," you know.Suzy Chase: Hey, y'all.Bonnie Benwick: Picking up her lovely Georgia accent. Yeah, she's just great. Plus, years and years ago she did a Thanksgiving menu for us that included her mom's pecan pie. Joe and I think it's the best one. It holds up year after year. It's the best recipe we've ever made. The ratio of goo to nuts is perfect and also, this blackberry cobbler, which is kind of genius, that she does in a skillet, very easy. Pour in the batter, pour in the fruit. It's kind of a perfect recipe. I think it got included in the Genius Desserts book by Kristen Miglore this year.Suzy Chase: I'm gonna have to look up that pecan pie recipe because I always find that there's more goo than pecans and it always makes me mad.Bonnie Benwick: Exactly, but this is, I'm telling you, this is the way to go.Suzy Chase: I love Jessie Sheehan and that darling cookbook, The Vintage Baker. With all of the baking books on the market, why this one?Bonnie Benwick: I just thought it was sweet. She doesn't overreach. I like the fact that it wasn't 800 recipes. Again, I like where she's been baking and how she learned it. But in this one, you're tricked a little bit. It's vintage baker but she's applying modern methods and tweaking very traditional recipes in a way that I think makes them, reintroduces them to us. So I appreciated that. I just think she has a nice feel for things. She doesn't make things too fussy, don't you think?Suzy Chase: And yeah, she is modern. You feel like you're gonna be flipping through grandma's baking book with her refrigerator cakes, but it's not. It's so modern. I think she's onto something.Bonnie Benwick: I tend to lard this end of the year list with a lot of baking books. Could you tell? I do. I like all forms of cooking and baking in the kitchen, but really, baking is kind of my jam. So when they come out in full force, all the cookie books and the ... There were fewer cake books this year, I noticed. I thought that was kind of interesting.Suzy Chase: What is one cookbook trend or type of food you'd like to forget in 2018?Bonnie Benwick: I'm gonna get in trouble for saying this. Cauliflower.Suzy Chase: Thank you.Bonnie Benwick: I've never liked it and just this year it turned into flower, and rice, and microwavable cup things where normally they would have some starch, they used cauliflower instead, which must smell so horrible to me, from the microwave. I can't even tell you. They made cheese crackers out of it, like fake cheese crackers out of it.Suzy Chase: Those are awful.Bonnie Benwick: And even ice cream. Have you had those?Suzy Chase: Yeah, they sell them at Trader Joe's. They're awful.Bonnie Benwick: Please. I really just would like that to go away.Suzy Chase: What about kale?Bonnie Benwick: Kale doesn't bother me. It got overworked a little bit, but I think it's settled back down into a happy place where people just aren't writing about it, but I think they're still using it. I like a good massaged kale salad. I like the way that it's a rich green. I like the way that it's a hearty green that will hold up in a soup. I like kale better than chard, I think. So for those Italian wedding meatball soups and things, I started using kale in it and I like it.Suzy Chase: Well, okay.Bonnie Benwick: I'm sorry.Suzy Chase: You know who Mimi Sheraton is?Bonnie Benwick: Oh yeah.Suzy Chase: She hates kale. Hate, hate, hates it.Bonnie Benwick: She hates maple syrup.Suzy Chase: She hates everything. I love her.Bonnie Benwick: She's funny when she hates it.Suzy Chase: Yeah.Bonnie Benwick: She actually wrote this essay for us on why she hates the taste of maple. It gets overused this time of year. You should look it up. It's very funny. She gets so ... Talk about click bait. Everybody was just, what are you talking about? Now every time we use maple in a thing we're like, "Sorry, Mimi."Suzy Chase: What is one trend you see on the horizon for 2019?Bonnie Benwick: Probably already half trended out. Fried foods maybe? People are gonna rediscover them based on ... The re-tweeted food media seems to have picked up on the air fryer and they're all over it. They think that by spraying their food with cooking oil spray and basically putting them in a convection oven, which is pretty much something you can do in a convection oven, I think, is going to turn the tide. So we'll have fried zucchini and sweet potato fries.Suzy Chase: Fried cauliflower.Bonnie Benwick: Sure, all the time.Suzy Chase: There you go.Bonnie Benwick: At home. For me, it's not ... I think frying foods in general is something that people avoid maybe for the wrong reasons. They say they don't want a lot of overused oil, but I have this theory that in the vast middle of America, take away the coast, but I think people know how to fry. I think they reuse the oil and they strain it, reuse it. I think once you get a feel for it, it's not like it's in there soaking up buckets and buckets of oil. It's in, it's out. You have to learn how to do it, right? Again, it's the sort of thing where I think if you know how to do it, you're not gonna buy an air fryer. If you, all the times that you maybe go out and you're guiltily ordering the fried mozzarella sticks or something, it's just funny to me that it's opened up this world of possibilities where there was a world of possibilities already there. But I could be totally wrong about this too.Suzy Chase: We'll see. What cookbook is sitting on your bedside table right now?Bonnie Benwick: The one that's on the top of the list is not a new book, it's an old book. It's a 2003 book called Cooking 1-2-3 by Rozanne Gold. Do you know it?Suzy Chase: No.Bonnie Benwick: It's like a game-changing book. She gloms on very early to this, it doesn't take a lot of ingredients, and if you want to get dinner on the table, this is how you do it. So the one, two, three is a minimal amount of ingredients, but it's just also very easy steps. I tend to have it on my bedside every now and then when I'm looking for inspiration for my Dinner In Minutes column, which is quick weeknight meals. Usually, there's something in there that I can start tweaking or playing off of. You should look it up. She's very good in a very simple way. She's one of those people that might be under the radar for people who aren't on the east coast, but I have a lot of respect for her and what she's done. She's done several cookbooks, nothing recent. I don't know if she does that anymore, but she's also I think a driving force behind the cookbook section that was donated or created or something for New York Public Library. I'm getting that wrong, for New York University.Suzy Chase: Oh yes. I've been to that.Bonnie Benwick: I think it's called the spine collection or something. Have you? Yeah.Suzy Chase: The Fales Library?Bonnie Benwick: Fales, that's it. Suzy Chase: Yeah. It's incredible.Bonnie Benwick: Then let's see, something that I have current on here is a galley for Solo, which was on my list. Was that on your list, by Anita Lo?Suzy Chase: No, but I'm dying to talk to her.Bonnie Benwick: Yeah, I think she'd be a really good interview. I remember when she appeared on top chef she was someone you wanted to listen to. Every couple of years, people remember that people aren't cooking for groups of 12. They come out with a cooking for one book. Years and years ago, I think just after Joe had come to the food section, we came up with the idea of a cooking for one column and he did for several years. We started off with getting different cooking for one constituencies to author it, like somebody who runs and eats food for fuel, basically. Obviously someone who was a widower who hadn't been cooking and then just had to start it up and give her her own life. Then Joe sort of glommed onto it and made it things that he likes to cook. It was very popular. What Anita has done in the Solo book is first of all say it's not all about her being by herself because she is in a relationship, happens to be, but even if you're living with other people, every once in a while you cook by yourself and these are empowering recipes that she'll give you that you can treat yourself well without making a whole big deal out of it.Suzy Chase: I think she lives in my neighborhood.Bonnie Benwick: Well, lucky you. You should definitely get together with her.Suzy Chase: She had a restaurant a couple streets over. I cannot think of the name right now, but it closed and everyone was so sad.Bonnie Benwick: Yeah. Was it Annisa?Suzy Chase: Yes.Bonnie Benwick: Anyway, sure. Her restaurant closed and everybody is sort of waiting to see what she's gonna do now.Suzy Chase: What is your favorite vintage out of print cookbook?Bonnie Benwick: Probably that settlement one that I mentioned, just for sentimental reasons. The 1949 edition, again, was when my mom got married. That was the year my parents married. I downsized about six months ago and I had so many cookbooks that at some point, I just thought if it's in a box and I haven't looked at it in such a long time, I'm not even gonna open the box. I donated about 12 boxes to a local DC organization that teaches cooking skills and also provides food for the city through city support residents, and I gave it away. I don't have it.Suzy Chase: Oh no.Bonnie Benwick: When I opened up the books that I took with me to my apartment, it's gone. I feel bad about that, but she had written notes in the margins. I think I would just like it back in my life for comfort. I can see ... I've gone online before and looked for this edition, and it's hundreds of dollars through somebody who understands how sentimental somebody can be about it. It's really very solidly about the memories and not so much about everything that we made out of it.Suzy Chase: It's interesting. I was just talking with Jan Miller, executive editor of Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook yesterday, and so many people feel the same way about their really old Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook. It's like an old friend.Bonnie Benwick: Yeah. Did the old ones used to have that red and white gingham thing on the cover?Suzy Chase: Yeah, and the tabs.Bonnie Benwick: Tabs, yes.Suzy Chase: Yes.Bonnie Benwick: Yeah.Suzy Chase: Aw.Bonnie Benwick: There were also those, there were a series of, I think it was by Workman, those 365 Days of Chicken or something else books. I don't know if they're really out of print or not, but they were the same size and they came out in the same era that The Silver Palate came out in. It's the paperback book but it's kind of longer size. That 365 Days of Chicken might have been in the same format as Better Homes & Gardens where it had a hard cover and you could open up the pages, but there were some pretty good simple chicken recipes in that book. I think I dipped in and out of that quite a lot. That's another one that I let go.Suzy Chase: I have an oddball question. Why aren't cookbooks critiqued? There are book critics but why aren't cookbooks critiqued?Bonnie Benwick: You know, I should start something, Suzy.Suzy Chase: You should. You're welcome.Bonnie Benwick: Kind of interesting. I think for one, if you're gonna critique it, you can sit down even with a big fat book and read it and then you're done, but with a cookbook, you really need to cook your way through it to critique it honestly, to assess its abilities, and then you have to weight it against other cookbooks and maybe some people just don't have the historical background of reading so many cookbooks and working with so many. I used to write regular reviews of cookbooks in the earlier days of the food section. Then we had other people writing them, and then we just stopped running them. Nobody said a peep. There wasn't one reader who wrote in and said, "What happened to those great cookbook reviews you used to have?"Suzy Chase: Oh really?Bonnie Benwick: No.Suzy Chase: Huh.Bonnie Benwick: When I went on social media and just asked for general feedback, not about us, but about in general, where did people read reviews, or how did they know what cookbooks to choose, overwhelmingly, they said they just read what's on Amazon. I just thought, well, who's writing those? You don't even know.Suzy Chase: Yeah. What pro is writing that?Bonnie Benwick: It's like the Yelp of cookbooks or something. It's like people find their names and they seem authentic, but it could be Russian trolls for all I know. I don't even understand why that's a good thing to go by. I think more than that, these days, people probably just gravitate toward bestsellers. Don't you?Suzy Chase: Definitely. Look at Joanna Gaines. On every episode this season, I've been asking cookbook authors what their last meal would be. So, what would you have for your last supper?Bonnie Benwick: It would be shrimp. I would have different kinds of shrimp. I like those pinky red ones from Maine that they can't seem to get out of the sea these days. I like glass shrimp, which I've had marinated a little bit as an appetizer. I like garlicky shrimp scampi type stuff, really low brow basic stuff. I like just caught gold shrimp that have been poached in a court bouillon and maybe I would just dip it aioli because it would be my last meal and I wouldn't care about anything that was happening to my insides. But I grew up in a kosher eating two sets of silverware kind of house. I think I must have been in high school or college the first time I really had shrimp. I just went out or went off the reservation and I've never looked back. I never get tired of it, I can't eat too much of it. It makes me sad when it goes into the oven and comes out an hour later and it's just dry and rubbery and horrible in a casserole or something. But I'll always give it a try. I like sucking heads out of shrimp. So there you go. I’d be full of shrimp.Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?Bonnie Benwick: I would love for everybody to come and chat with us online every Wednesday from noon to one EST at live.washingtonpost.com. We have an online chat called Free Range and we have a lot of faithful followers and a lot of lurkers who can just look at the questions and answers afterwards. It's a really fun hour. Typically if there's a guest who's written something, we'll have people on there. Had a whole lot of cookie experts on the week that our annual holiday cookies issue came out, and that was fun. People have questions and sometimes they start with, "This is a really dumb question but," and I'm like, "There's no dumb questions." It's all about being non-intimidating. I also have a Dinner in Minutes column. It's been doing a weekly quick meal column since, I don't know, maybe 11 years or so. That now appears in our vertical called Voraciously. I don't know if you have seen it, but it's about a year old and you can get it through Eat Voraciously or washingtonpost.com/food. That'll take you to another link that you can get in. It's basically about non-intimidating learning basic skills. It's brought in a whole new audience for us. I like [inaudible 00:38:57] my column I maybe even come up with a set pantry so that if you buy into the pantry and if you stock what I stock, then you'll never have to go shopping to make the recipe that I've given you for that week. So that seems to be good. On Twitter, it's just my name, first name and last name. On Instagram, I'm @bbenwick. I am not on Facebook. I got hacked a couple years ago and never went back on. Now it doesn't seem like a really good thing to do, does it? Although I think Facebook has Instagram too, but I don't share a whole heck of a lot of my personal life on Instagram, just mostly things I eat and make.Suzy Chase: This has been so much fun. Thanks, Bonnie, for coming on Cookery By The Book Podcast. Bonnie Benwick: Thank you. It’s been fun.Outro: Follow Suzy Chase on Instagram, @cookerybythebook, and subscribe over on cookerybythebook.com or in Apple podcasts. Thanks for listening to Cookery By The Book Podcast, the only podcast devoted to cookbooks since 2015.

Secrets of the Southern TableA Food Lover's Tour of the Global SouthBy Virginia Willis INTRO: Welcome to the Cookery by the Book Podcast with Suzy Chase! She's just a home cook in New York City sitting at her dining room table talking to cookbook authors.Virginia Willis: My name is Virginia Willis, and my most recent cookbook is Secret of the Southern Table: A Food Lover's Tour of the Global South.Suzy Chase: This cookbook was a real education for me. In the forward, Sean Brock wrote, "There is a misconception around the world that southern food is a singular cuisine." Explain that statement.Virginia Willis: Well, I think to what Sean does, he sort of expounds on the fact that the south is roughly one million square miles, and so I really ... What he wrote in terms of we don't say, "I love European food," I think that that application applies to the south, that same sort of philosophy would apply to the south. The coastal cuisine of Louisiana is tremendously different from the coastal cuisine of Florida or the low country or Texas. So this southern food, when people say southern food or southern cuisine, there's actually many sort of pockets and micro-pockets throughout the south.Suzy Chase: In terms of the pockets and micro-pockets, describe the differences between, let's say the food in Appalachia to coastal Carolina to the gulf.Virginia Willis: So the food of Appalachia would be more of mountain cuisine, so corn grows there. It's not a great area for grains, so there'd be less wheat production. The soil is rocky, and it's mountainous. It's a poor party of the country. It always has been. The cuisine of the deep south, of course, that's traditionally a long time ago would've been the plantations and cotton, but it's just huge expanses of land for crops. And then of course the coastal cuisines, the various different types of coastal cuisines would've heavily relied upon seafood. So each sort of geographic area by what grows in the region sort of dictates what the food of that region is.Suzy Chase: You wrote, "Memory shapes the story of our lives and allows us to interact with the world." I adore the visual of your grandmother Louise sitting you in one compartment of her double-sided steel sink while she shelled peas or snapped beans in her kitchen with blue and white gingham curtains!Virginia Willis: You can't paint a better picture, right? I mean, it's just ...Suzy Chase: I know! So how did this memory shape your life?Virginia Willis: Well, my earliest memories are being in the kitchen with my grandmother and with my mother ... my grandfather. I mean, really, truly I was three years old when my family moved from Georgia to Louisiana, which also had tremendous influence. The best times of my life have sort of been in the kitchen. That's always been what grounded me, what intrigued me, what excited me, and so that kitchen, my grandmother and grandfather's kitchen, those heart pine walls and the linoleum floor and the gingham checkered curtains ... That really distilled it for me about like where my love of food and cooking started.Suzy Chase: I love that. I want to go there right now! The kitchen sounds so cute!Virginia Willis: It was. She had it packed full. It was this tidy little kitchen with this little eat-in table for the two of them. And when I was a little girl, my sister and I both had stools that sort of were kept underneath the table that we would pull out so the two adults and the two children could sit and eat there. And of course we had a dining room, but I just remember grits for breakfast. And in the summertime, my grandfather would bring in tomatoes, and my grandmother would chop up fresh tomatoes for the top of the grits. So it really just truly ... I think my mouth is watering right now!Suzy Chase: I know! ... So talk about the questions of ownership of southern cooking. We often hear about the nameless black women who helped mold southern cuisine, but talk about the nameless faceless poor white women that we don't really hear about.Virginia Willis: Yeah ... It's so complicated, and it's so heavy. It is still ... It's only been a couple hundred years since the Civil War, right? In the scope of things, it just hasn't been that long, and of course the Jim Crow ... African-Americans have been kept sort of subjugated for the few hundred years since then. But in terms of the ownership and the faceless white women, one thing to consider is that there really has always been a 1%. I mean, we've sort of reflected upon that more recently with the crash a couple years ago and such, but there really has sort of been always this 1%. And so in the south, there's this perception of great plantations and people owning multiple slaves, and this was true, and this was also part of the 1%. So there was undoubtedly a system that kept different classes and cultures in place, and I'm actually reading this really sort of academic book called Masterless Men, and it's about poor whites in the antebellum south. And because slavery existed, there really wasn't a working white class because of course there was slavery, and so that was technically free, if that makes any sense. I mean, other than the cost of the person. So it's truly complicated, but one thing that does come back is that there has always been poverty in the south for a great many of the people, both black and white included. And so one of the things that I like to take into consideration or I want us to start taking into consideration with our dialogue is addressing and understanding the implications of slavery but also understanding the implications that there were poor whites as well that didn't have slaves. And so there always has been this sort of faceless women cooking food for people.Suzy Chase: Why have we never heard that story? I'm sitting here thinking, "Well yes, there were white people who were out of work because of slavery."Virginia Willis: It's really ... The thing is, is that I don't think that we've actually come to grips as a country with the fact that we were proponents of slavery for centuries, and it did live and exist in the south for far longer than it did in the north, but let's not kid ourselves. There was slavery in the northeast when the colonies were founded, and there was a tremendous slave trade between the Caribbean and salt cod in New England and Europe. So I feel like that's part of the complication. We really ... In this day and age, it's hard for us to sort of grasp the fact that the United States is so deeply involved with slavery for so long, for centuries, truly for centuries ... And it did last longer in the south, and it did become ... It was the primary instigation for the Civil War. But you, I have an expression like, "The truth is always in the middle." It's easily not one side or the other. The truth is always somewhere in between, and I feel like that's just part of it. We're still trying to figure it out. I feel it's just part of my organic desire as a southerner and a food person and a cook to try to figure out some of these questions, and then also just my place as a person, right? This is a person. How does this happen? How does this play out? How does this affect people's lives? You know, it's a tumultuous time.Suzy Chase: The largest population of Vietnamese in the United States outside of California is Houston. Talk a little bit about the Vietnamese shrimpers in Texas.Virginia Willis: So that is such a fascinating story because when I tell people that there are more Vietnamese in Houston than anywhere outside of California in the United States, people, their eyes just pop up. People think, Houston, Texas and cowboys or oil, right? There are some people who are little bit more geographically aware might realize that it's on actually pretty close the coast, and there's this seafooding industry. But essentially, after the Vietnam War, when the Vietnamese were displaced and there was this humanitarian crisis, the UN placed these Vietnamese refugees, they were unceremoniously called the boat people ... The UN placed them in different places throughout the world, and Texas was one of them. And so one of the things that's so fascinating there is that the Vietnamese came in. Of course, Vietnam has two coasts. It's a seafaring country, and so the Vietnamese entered the fishing and shrimping industry. And in my research, I learned that of course sort of history repeats itself time and time again. When a new population moves into an area and they start taking the jobs, then the dominant population reacts, and the dominant population, being white shrimpers in Houston and Galveston and in the area, it became sort of like the battle zone. And the KKK protested and became involved. It was fraught. Ships were burned, and shots were fired, and all these things. So how does that play into my cookbook? I felt like it's important to tell those stories too. I mean, southern food isn't solely dewy-eyed women with gingham aprons, right? So there's the good, the bad, and the ugly, and if you love something or if you love a place or you love someone, you love it all or have to acknowledge it all. So I wanted to tell that story, but what has also happened ... There's this sort of twofold realization that I had. The Vietnamese culture is still fairly closed. I mean, it was only like 40 years ago, so in time, that's not much time. So my goal in visiting Galveston and the Houston area was to try to talk to Vietnamese shrimpers and to talk to them about their experience. I gave it my best journalistic shot, and I couldn't get anyone to talk to me.Suzy Chase: Really?Virginia Willis: I couldn't get anyone ... Yeah. I contacted the Texas seafood marketing association and part of the department of agriculture and asked for assistance getting me in touch with the Vietnamese shrimpermen. They had nobody. It was eye-opening. It was really ... It was a lesson, right? It's like only 40 years later, and this community is still pretty closed. I literally found myself like wandering the docks, walking into a clearly Vietnamese-owned seafood company, and they're like, "Oh, we're busy." And I'm like, "Oh, that's fine. I'll wait." "No, we're busy, and we're gonna be busy." I just met a gentleman mending nets and asked him if we could take his photograph, and he said no. He didn't mind his back being shown, but he didn't want to be a part of the story. So it was sort of disheartening on that end, and then we did meet some young, early 20-something Vietnamese kids that are probably third-generation now, maybe second, and they're like, "Hey, yeah. You can take our picture." So they were brothers, and one was sort of like a version of like a Vietnamese Ken, right? Ken doll? You know Ken?Suzy Chase: Yeah.Virginia Willis: Super clean cut and t-shirt and buff and clearly works out ... this really clean cut. And his brother was sort of the Johnny Depp of Vietnamese culture! He was great! I mean, seriously, it's like somewhere between Johnny Depp and Pirates of the Caribbean kind of Keith Richards look. And they were very open and would talk to us and had no problem. So I feel like the tides will turn, right, eventually. Assimilation does happen. It just takes awhile. And then the only thing I'd say lastly to that is that open or closed, the presence of so many Vietnamese in the Houston area has definitely affected the local food and culture. It's just present. We went to a place to eat, and they had ... They called them Vietnamese fajitas because everyone of course knows fajitas, but they were Vietnamese fajitas. But it wasn't a fajita at all. It was a Vietnamese rice paper wrap, right? And lots of restaurants have Vietnamese influence throughout. It's taken awhile, but the presence the Vietnamese in Texas is definitely affecting the local food wave there.Suzy Chase: And I think I read in the book that they call it Viet-Tex?Virginia Willis: Yeah! There's a Viet-Tex, and then of course there're Vietnamese all along the gulf because they didn't just sort of stay in Texas. They moved to Louisiana, and there's Vietnamese in Mississippi and Alabama as well. And so in Louisiana, there's a Viet-Cajun-Suzy Chase: Oh my gosh!Virginia Willis: Sort of this incredible mashup of like the creole spices and the southeast-Asian spices with like ginger and lemongrass and garlic. And it's this incredible mashups or fusions or just this natural evolution of what southern food really is.Suzy Chase: In addition to the recipes in each chapter, you have two essays about a farmer, catcher, harvester, or maker. One that caught my eye was Many Fold Farm. Talk a bit about Ross and Rebecca William, the new face of farming and their hurdles with a small farm.Virginia Willis: Oh, it's just sort of amazing. My goal of this book was to present this rich and diverse south, and so my goal was also to present the unexpected. So for example, in Georgia the average farmer is a 57 year old white male. I don't have any problems with 57 year old white men, and neither one did, but what I wanted to do is to not feature that, not to feature that man, to feature someone else. So Ross and Rebecca are this young couple. They've been high school sweethearts, stayed together through college, have purposefully chosen this region in Palmetto, which is 30, 45 minutes tops from Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, the world's busiest airport. But it's completely rural, tranquil, quiet, countryside only 30 minutes away from Atlanta. And they have chosen this region because there are some pretty strict zoning laws that have been put into place by local governance to restrict sprawl. Atlanta has a ton of sprawl, like in all directions, and big buck stores and malls and traffic, traffic, traffic. We've got terrible traffic in Atlanta. So Ross and Rebecca started with chickens and have moved to goat cheese and different sheep milk cheeses ... winning award fast, but when I went and interviewed them, shortly thereafter, they had to put pause on the farm because the challenges that farmers face, right? They wanted to continue making this beautiful award-winning cheese, but to scale up, they would've had to have imported sheep's milk from the Midwest. And it sort of flew in the face of their values. So there's so many different considerations in farming, and the first one of course, you can be sustainable, but if it's not economically sustainable, it's not sustainable at all. And so that's sort of where it was left. They're hitting pause for a bit, so they can sort of regroup and figure out what they're doing.Suzy Chase: Then I read about the gospel of ham, Nancy Newsom. Newsom's country hams! Describe the country hams that she makes.Virginia Willis: Oh my god. I love Ms. Nancy. She is just amazing! So she's this sort of powerhouse of a woman and the ham is like nothing you've ever tasted before. It's just amazing ... So it would be ... For folks who aren't familiar with country ham, country ham is a traditional means of preservation that's hundreds and hundreds of years old. It's been long practiced in Europe, and then those traditions came to the south. And primarily hams are salted, and in the United States, in specifically sort of like in Appalachia, in the mountains, they were salted and smoked. So there's like a twofold process. Because it's so hot in the south, we have to have like extra layer of preservation. But Nancy's hams are this amazing salty and sweet and intensely savory ... absolutely incredible. It would be similar to one of the finest prosciutto hams from Parma. When sliced really thinly, it's exactly the same sort of quality of prosciutto.Suzy Chase: How did ham become a secret of the southern table?Virginia Willis: So pig is the meat of the south. If you kind of think about it, how did that happen? There's these large expanses, and in Texas, definitely beef is king. And there are cattle raised in the south, but for much of the south, these wide expanses would not have been used for pastureland. They would've been used from crops, for growing soybeans or cotton or corn or whatever it is. So pigs have long been sort of the meat that sustained the south, and then of course cured ham would be a natural extension of that. The pigs would be raised throughout the year, and then there would be a hog killing the fall. Of course when it got cooler, so that would be the perfect time to sort of cure the hams and put them in the smokehouse so that there would be meat for the wintertime. So ham is a very integral part of southern food throughout the south. So I say that southern food is different cuisines. Southern food throughout the south involves ham.Suzy Chase: What is one southern dish that you make that immediately brings you back to growing up in the south?Virginia Willis: There's so many, right? Like okra ... I literally have an okra pendant around my neck. I think okra is a sort of aggressively southern vegetable. It primarily grows in the south. But if I were to be really truthfully honest, even though I'm trying to present all these different recipes from the south, from different cultures, I think that biscuits are probably the food that takes me back ... going back to that gingham curtain and the kitchen of my grandmother's. I've been making biscuits since I was three years old in the kitchen, so that is firmly burned into my memory.Suzy Chase: You've wrote in the back of the cookbook, "As we drove across 11 states, the radio sat silent for hours upon hours as we examined our thoughts and beliefs regarding our homeland, perused its difficult past, contemplated its complicated current situation, and voiced our hopes for its future." Was there one person you met traveling while researching your cookbook along the way that made a huge impression on you?Virginia Willis: I can't truly weigh like one experience more than the other because it really was just a sort of journey of a lifetime, and pulling out one person, I think, would be too problematic because I met so many different voices. I might point towards Glenn Roberts at Anson Mills because I think that what he is doing is really incredible. Many people may have heard of Anson Mills. It's become sort of the darling of chefs in the past decade or so. But Glenn is a seed saver, and so what he's doing sort of extends past just the food of the south. He's sort of saving the world, which is obviously tremendous. But there have been so many seeds lost. There's been such an impediment to seed diversity. And Glenn is famous for grits and Carolina gold rice, but he's actually bringing back all these heirloom breeds and heritage breeds that have sort of almost fallen off the face of the earth. And he's working with Indian tribes and Rhode Island and Massachusetts like bringing heirloom corn from colonial times there. So he's, I think, indicative of this really sort of life changing things that are happening around southern food that extend past southern food.Suzy Chase: Last night for dinner, I made your recipe for catfish mulldown on page 203.Virginia Willis: Yum!Suzy Chase: Nothing knocks my socks off more than a simple delicious dish, and this blew me away! Describe this old-fashioned dish and give us a little background on your uncle Marshal, the fishing guide.Virginia Willis: Yeah, okay, so uncle Marshal was a river guide ... I don't know. Working on the river has always been sort of a roughneck, a rough position. I mean, if you think about the bars were on the river, and the gambling houses were on the river and all that. And I don't know anything about uncle Marshal doing that, but I do know that he was sort of perceived as this sort of character, right? And would take people fishing. So I'm not certain that he had it, but a mulldown was sort of a catfish stew, catfish and potatoes, more of like a stew, and it would've been put into a dutch oven and sort of layered and cooked in potatoes and catfish and salt pork or something like that, maybe a little bit of ketchup or something. And I've sort of turned it, sort of chefed it up a bit, for a lack of a better word, with cream and potatoes and catfish, and it just sort of becomes this sort of really rich but undeniably simple and satisfying supper. And of course catfish are native to the south. There are lots of catfish that live in our rivers, and Mississippi now is a big state for raising farm raised catfish. So catfish is a very southern fish for the inland, not the coast, not the ocean, but catfish is super southern fish.Suzy Chase: I love catfish. This dish was so darn good, and it only has four ingredients!Virginia Willis: My philosophy with food in general is to just use really good ingredients and do as little to it as possible to mess with it. Just trust the ingredient and honor the ingredient, and that comes from not sort of some recent chef driven revelation. My grandfather had a garden ... We had a garden my whole entire life. We ate summer squash in season. We ate eggplant in season. We ate okra in season. We ate collard greens in season. We ate sweet potatoes. I mean, everything was in season, and it wasn't some sort of highfalutin thing. It was just what it was. And so when you're dealing with something that's fresh out of the garden, not for a week in a produce department, or a week and a half in the produce department, it just tastes so much better.Suzy Chase: So before we wrap up, one last little story I have to tell you. In the 90s, I was a cookbook publicist in Kansas City. You'll see where this is going. And desperately wanted to move out of Kansas City to work with cookbooks on a larger scale, and it was a no-brainer to contact the absolute pinnacle of cookbook publicity at that time, which as Lisa Ekus. So she said she would talk to me if I wanted to come to Massachusetts, but I really wanted to move to New York City. So I was bummed that I never got the chance to meet her, and I never got the chance to learn from her. So fast forward, I was pleasantly surprised to see her name mentioned in the back of your cookbook. Talk a little bit about Lisa Ekus for the cookbook lovers who may not know her name.Virginia Willis: Well, I first have to divulge that Lisa is my partner, so she and I-Suzy Chase: Yes!Virginia Willis: She was first my agent, and then we became friends, and then it was like, "Oh wow, hey!"Suzy Chase: I love that!Virginia Willis: And so we fell in love! ... Gosh, I have such a smile on my face right now! I'm so glad. Lisa has been in the business of cookbooks and publishing and all things culinary for roughly 35 years. When I chose to send her the book proposal for Bon Appetit, Y'all, which was my first book that out ten years ago. I knew her to be the best in the business. I mean, that was just sort of, for me, being in food for roughly 25 years now, I at the time, 10 years ago, was like, "Well, if I'm gonna get an agent, I want it to be Lisa Ekus." So I sent her my proposal with an exclusive and said, "You're the only agent I'm sending it to. I'll give you six to eight weeks before I take it out anywhere else." She has worked with Julia Child and Jacques Pepin, Marcella Hazan and Amanda Hesser from Food 52 and on and on. It's just sort of comical when we go to a bookstore and she's like, "Oh, I worked on that book. Oh wait, I worked on that book." And so she is sort of a behind the scenes person that has had a tremendous amount to do with food and cookbook publishing for the past three decades, and I love her!Suzy Chase: I love that!Virginia Willis: Yeah!Suzy Chase: So for season four of Cookery by the Book Podcast, I'm kicking off a new segment called: my last meal. If you had to place an order for your last meal on earth, what would it be?Virginia Willis: I've been able to enjoy and taste and have so many crazy different things from food that the bazaar in Turkey to handmade Italian pasta to foie grois in France. I mean, I feel very fortunate about my life and my travels. I guess at the end of the day, if I were to say what I would want for my last meal, it would probably involve fried chicken and biscuits and butter beans because that's my comfort food. That's the food of my people, and that's what I grew up with. And hopefully I won't be putting in that order anytime soon.Suzy Chase: Definitely not! Where can we find you on the web and social media?Virginia Willis: Oh awesome! Well thank you Suzy! So people can find out probably more than they ever wanted to know by going to virginiawillis.com, and at the top of that page, at the home page, there are links to all of my social, but essentially it's @VirginiaWillis for Twitter and Instagram and all that. But if they go to virginiawillis.com, they'll be able to find my books and find my blog and social media and all that kind of good stuff and events that I'll be doing throughout the year.Suzy Chase: It was such a pleasure chatting with you! Thanks Virginia for taking us on a food lover's tour of the global south, and thanks for coming on Cookery by the Book Podcast!Virginia Willis: Thank you so much, and I'd say, Suzy, Bon Appetit, y'all!Suzy Chase: Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, and while you're there, please take a moment to rate and review Cookery by the Book. You can also follow me on Instagram @CookeryByTheBook. Twitter is @IamSuzyChase, and download your kitchen mixtapes, Music to Cook By, on Spotify at Cookery by the Book. Thanks for listening!

Tweet LIVE this Sunday, August 5th at 635pm Small Bites with Glenn Gross and Derek Timm of Bluejeanfood.com on Wildfire Radio, we are thrilled to be joined by Virginia Willis to talk about her new cookbook “Secrets of the Southern Table” from Houghton–Mifflin In Secrets of the Southern Table, award-winning chef and cookbook author Virginia Willis takes you on a tour of today's South—a region rich in history and cultural diversity. With her signature charm and wit, Virginia shares many well-known Southern recipes like Pimento Cheese Tomato Herb Pie and "Cathead" Biscuits, but also some surprising revelations drawn from the area's many global influences, like Catfish Tacos with Avocado Crema, Mississippi-Style Char Siu Pork Tenderloin, and Greek Okra and Tomatoes. In addition to the recipes, Virginia profiles some of the diverse chefs, farmers, and other culinary influencers who are shaping contemporary Southern cuisine. Together, these stories and the delicious recipes that accompany them celebrate the rich and ever-evolving heritage of Southern cooking. Georgia-born, French-trained chef, Virginia Willis, is one of the most well-respected authorities on Southern Cooking today. She is the author of five previous cookbooks, including the James Beard Foundation Award-winning Lighten Up, Y'all and is an editor-at-large for Southern Living and author of the magazine's popular column “Cooking with Virginia.” Her articles have appeared nationally including Food52, CNN, All Recipes, Country Living Magazine, EatingWell, FamilyFun, and Fine Cooking. The Chicago Tribune has named her one of “Seven Food Writers You Need to Know.” We can't wait! Then we couldn't be happier to be joined by celebrity caterer Andrea Correale who is the founder of Elegant Affairs Off Premise Catering & Event Design to talk about her latest endeavor with celebrity Chef David Burke, of ESquared Hospitality, Tavern62 by David Burke and Woodpecker by David Burke, among many other highly acclaimed restaurants, including appearances on Bravo's Top Chef Masters, and receiving a US patent for his pink Himalayan salt dry-age technique for steaks have announced their exclusive catering collaboration. Out of that collaboration is David Burke Off-Premise Catering – David By Andrea, a full-service catering company for weddings, corporate gatherings, and social events. The famous culinary duo, who have been friends for decades, and will bring their signature gastronomic styles and expertise to create bespoke catering packages and curate events In New York City, the Hamptons and New Jersey, with plans to expand operations in the coming months. The team will specialize in weddings, Bar & Bat Mitzvahs, corporate events, and social gatherings. In addition, their partnership has a stronghold in the corporate entertaining arena – from small-scale meetings to large scale events and galas, political fundraisers, and media events. Andrea Correale is committed to providing the best food, service and overall experience; precisely why Elegant Affairs is known as the go to caterer for the Long Island Gold Coast, Manhattan and the Hamptons. Andrea's infectious personality and expertise prompted requests from L'Oréal ParisAcademy and Lenox China to represent their brands as a lifestyle and entertaining expert. Andrea can often be seen in her many appearances as the celebrity caterer to the stars on Bravo, CBS, FOX, HGTV, MTV, NBC, and VH1. Also, as a regular contributor to Hamptons Magazine, 25A Magazine, and Social Life Magazine, Andrea's goal is to encourage home cooks to make the ordinary extraordinary using simple ingredients in unexpected ways. We are excited to welcome back on the program Stuart Gordon the event organizer for PhillykosherBbq.com as The Men's Club of Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El will host the second annual Charity BBQ Festival in the Mid-Atlantic region, certified by the The Kansas City Barbeque Society. The event is scheduled for Sunday, August 26, 2018, from 12 noon to 5PM on the Main Line of Philadelphia. Twenty cooking teams will compete under the competition guidelines of the Kansas City Barbeque Society, as well as the scrutiny of the kosher supervisors Keystone K. The goal of Hava NaGrilla Smoke BBQ Festival Charity BBQ is to bring community together and support the work of the Jewish Relief Agency; relieving hunger, improving lives and strengthening our bonds of fellowship. Also be on the lookout for Yehuda Sichel, Steve Cook, Giovanni Varallo, Six13, Baal Shem Tov Band, Kosher Guru and Pickle Guys there. Last, but certainly not least we welcome in studio Anthony Roebuck and Donald Stevenson the owners of Chic-A-Delphia Chicken Burger. Who else can you count on for Gourmet Chicken Burgers? #chicadelphia that's who!!! DM them on Instagram @_chicadelphia or email them Chicadelphia@yahoo.com to purchase yours for a new spin on chicken, burgers, and Philadelphia as a whole. The post Small Bites Episode 90 appeared first on Wildfire Radio.

Get ready to wrap your brain around a reality that defies media stereotypes of what it means to be Southern. In her new cookbook, Secrets of the Southern Table, chef Virginia Wills introduces you to Southerners with roots that stretch around the globe. Go into Virginia’s kitchen in Atlanta to cook shrimp and talk about how diverse people shape what it means to be Southern today through their businesses, farms, restaurants, and cultures—and the impact she hopes their recipes and stories will have. The recipe for Spicy Asian Cajun BBQ Shrimp with Grilled Baguette is available at ForklorePodcast.com.

Award-winning chef, cookbook author and Southern food authority Virginia Willis is our guest this week, talking about her new book, Secrets of the Southern Table, and sharing valuable cooking tips for home chefs everywhere.

In the summer season premiere of Eat Your Words, Cathy is joined in-studio by Virginia Willis, a James Beard-Award-winning author of 5 cookbooks, to discuss her latest: Secrets of the Southern Table. Virginia shares how much of a departure this book is from her rest, as she seeks to expose Southern cooking as the multicultural cuisine that it is. From Chinese immigrants to African ingredients cultivated by enslaved farmers, the diverse landscape and long growing season of the South has lent itself to a multifaceted cuisine that is far from just fried chicken & biscuits. Tune in to hear why Virginia thinks it's important to redefine Southern cuisine in today's divisive atmosphere. Eat Your Words is powered by Simplecast

With an ode to bacon drippings, learn more about cooking for the southern table with Amy and Rebecca.

The Total Tutor Neil Haley will interview Celebrity Chef Paula Deen. She will discuss At the Southern Table with Paula Deen: 150 Classic Recipes to share with Family and Friends Paula Deen has sold over 11 million copies of her 18 cookbooks. Deen's first live tour, “Paula Deen Live!” commenced in June 2014, and featured cooking demonstrations, games, and stories with Paula and her fans. The Lady & Sons, the Savannah, Georgia restaurant Paula founded with her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen, remains one of the country's most popular regional restaurants. In 2015, Paula launched her first free mobile game, Paula Deen's Recipe Quest, in addition to her podcast, What's Cooking with Paula Deen, and radio show, Get Cooking with Paula Deen. That same year, Paula premiered her first show on EVINE Live and launched a pet food line with Hugs called Paula Deen Hugs Premium Select Pet Food. In the fall of 2015, Paula released her cookbook, Paula Deen Cuts The Fat: 250 Favorite Recipes All Lightened Up, which reached The New York Times Best Sellers List in under a week. Simultaneously, she competed in the twenty-first season of ABC's hit show “Dancing with the Stars,” and successfully made it halfway through the competition.  

Episode 14 - Bar Manager of Charlotte's Dogwood Southern Table & Bar, Brian Lorusso. Barman Brian Lorusso gets into hospitality, hospitality and hospitality. It's clear that's what makes his bar sing. We chat about Tiki cocktails and a trip to Iceland while understanding why we do this... "This' being 'service'. It's not for everyone, everybody. We felt a calling... do you?

Vieux Carre Contributed by Robert Ferrara • 1 oz Bulleit Rye • 1 oz Sweet Vermouth • 1 oz VSOP Cognac • 1/4 oz Benedictine • Dash of Angostura Bitters • Dash of Peychaud Bitters Add all ingredients to a mixing glass and stir for 20-25 seconds. Strain it into a glass and top with ice. Garnish with a lemon twist to make it pop.

It seems 50 Eggs Restaurant Group can do no wrong. The gustatory geniuses behind South Beach successes Yardbird and Khong River House have taken their winning recipe to Coral Gables. Enter Swine Southern Table & Bar, your next downhome dining favorite. Chat Chow TV talked bacon and bourbon with Swine bar manager, Robert Ferrera. Swine’s cocktail program focuses heavily on its own on-site barrel-aged rums and ryes. “We’re actually creating our own original cocktails here,” explains Ferrera. “We have a full-sized Buffalo Trace barrel and right now we’ve got Cabajisco, a nice, beautiful, white spirit; Dolin Blanc Vermouth, so as that changes, it’s going to fortify and change; and Mandarine Napoleon, an orange based cognac liqueur.” Prefer your spirits a little lighter? Not to fret, there’s something for everyone on this drink menu. Expect local, just-ripe ingredients from Homestead and creative applications (a glass misted with Mezcal for a hint of smokiness, in-house Swine bitters). And of course it all complements the sink-your-teeth-into-it fare. Although Swine shares some food inspiration from Yardbird (you’ll find the succulent Shrimp & Grits on both menus), Ferrera describes Swine as Yardbird’s tougher, younger brother. Chalk that up to Swine’s competition-winning rib rub, massive smoker in the kitchen, and wood-burning grill. Try the fall-off-the-bone Memphis Smoked Ribs, or gather a group and go to town on a whole hog, communal-table style. Now, while your mouth waters, watch the video above to figure out why fat washing makes rye tipples tastier (it’s a good thing, we swear) and find a new reason to drink rum (as if you needed one).

Jeff McInnis, Executive Chef of Yardbird Southern Table and Bar chats with us Southern food, the homey feel of Yardbird’s decor, some of the signature menu items (including the “Rabbit and Alligator Stew”), his favorite meal growing up and we talk about the “women’s bathroom”.