Podcast appearances and mentions of Virginia Willis

James Beard award-winning Atlanta chef, cookbook author, and AJC columnist Virginia Willis recently released a revised version of her 2008 cookbook, “Bon Appetit, Y’all!” She shares the special updates in this new edition with “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes. Plus, a new documentary spotlighting Athens rock band Five Eight will be screened at the Plaza Theatre on December 15. Frontman Mike Mantione and filmmaker Marc Pilvinsky discuss “Weirdo: The Story of Five Eight” with “City Lights” managing producer Kim Drobes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy 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.

Have you ever been to a wedding and wondered how hundreds of plates of food arrive at the right destinations at the right time? Often without an on-site kitchen. This is high-concept cooking, done without a net. Cookbook authors Matt Lee and Ted Lee spent four years immersed in the catering industry and wrote a book about their experiences and revelations called Hotbox. In this episode, we step behind the scenes with the Lee Brothers as our guides. Sara Brooke Curtis is an award-winning radio producer. Her work has aired on The Splendid Table, KCRW's UnFictional, KCRW's Good Food, CBC's Love Me, and BBC's Short Cuts, among others. She lives in western Massachusetts and loves recording sounds of everyday life and producing sonic worlds for listeners to surrender to and delight in. Special thanks to Steven Satterfield, Virginia Willis, Matt Bolus, Shuai and Corey Wang, Cheetie Kumar, Vishwesh Bhatt, and Eddie Hernandez for their delicious food and interviews. Hotbox: Inside Catering, the Food World's Riskiest Business, published by MacMillan, may be purchased from your favorite local bookstore. Gravy is proud to be a part of the APT Podcast Studios. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.

Cynthia Graubart and Denise talk about how showing up prepared and doing a great job opens up a world of opportunities. Cynthia is an award-winning cookbook author, cooking teacher, and culinary television producer. She's a James Beard Award Winner and an MFK Fischer Award Winner. Cynthia and Virginia Willis are co-founders of Culinary Media Training. They provide culinary professionals with the skills and confidence needed to work effectively in today's digital environment. CYNTHIA'S LINKS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cynthiagraubart/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cynthiagraubartauthor Website: http://www.cynthiagraubart.com/home Email: cynthia@cynthiagraubart.com Books: https://www.indiebound.org/search/book?keys=Cynthia+Graubart Culinary media training: https://www.culinarymediatraining.com/what-we-do   Women Beyond a Certain Age is an award-winning weekly podcast with Denise Vivaldo. She brings her own lively, humorous, and experienced viewpoint to the topics she discusses with her guests. The podcast covers wide-ranging subjects of importance to older women.   SHOW LINKS Website: https://womenbeyond.podbean.com Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WomenBeyond/ Follow our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WomenBeyond/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenbeyondacertainage/ Episode archive: https://womenbeyond.podbean.com Email us: WomenBeyond@icloud.com Denise Vivaldo is the host of WBACA. Her info lives here: https://denisevivaldogroup.com/ More of Denise's info is here: https://denisevivaldo.com Cindie Flannigan is the producer WBACA. Her info lives here: https://linktr.ee/cindieflannigan Denise and Cindie's books: https://www.amazon.com/Denise-Vivaldo/e/B001K8QNRA%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Hans and Steve welcome Beard Award-Winning Chef Virginia Willis to teach us the best ways to de-slime Okra and find excuses to get her to call Steve "Ya'll." Recipes include Okra and Tomatoes and a Pickled Okra Martini.

This week, Micki Maynard joins chef, author and media trainer Virginia Willis on her show, Cookbooks With Virginia. She also shares some personal news. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/micheline-maynard/support

This week, we have a mini-episode about what it means to be a chef. This is something I'm asking many of the guests as part of my upcoming season 3 interviews. I thought it would be great to get as much insight on this as possible, from many different people in the food and beverage industry.Today's answer comes from Virginia Willis. She was the TV kitchen director for Martha Stewart, Bobby Flay, and Nathalie Dupree and executive producer for Epicurious TV on the Discovery Channel. She's made cookies with Dwanye “The Rock” Johnson, foraged for berries in the Alaskan wilderness, harvested capers in Sicily, and beguiled celebrities such as Jane Fonda and Bill Clinton with her cooking -- but it all started in her grandmother's country kitchen. Virginia is the author of a number of books including Lighten Up, Y'all, Basic to Brilliant, Y'all, Okra, and Grits.You can find my full conversation with her here or wherever you get your podcasts.SponsorLooking to make better pizza? How about bagels, bread, or English muffins? Then you need a Baking Steel. Don't just take my word for it. Kenji López-Alt of Serious Eats/The Food Lab said “this is the answer I've been waiting for to produce consistently awesome pizza over and over”. ===========Virginia Willis===========Virginia's InstagramVirginia's's WebsiteVirginia's FacebookVirginia's TwitterVirginia's Eating Well Recipes ==========================CHEFS WITHOUT RESTAURANTS==========================If you enjoy the show, and would like to support it financially, check out our Patreon, or you can donate through Venmo or Buy Me a Coffee.  Get the Chefs Without Restaurants NewsletterVisit Our Amazon Store (we get paid when you buy stuff)Chefs Without Restaurants Facebook pageChefs Without Restaurants private Facebook groupChefs Without Restaurants InstagramFounder Chris Spear's personal chef business Perfect Little Bites

This week I have James Beard Foundation Award-winner, chef Virginia Willis. She was the TV kitchen director for Martha Stewart, Bobby Flay, and Nathalie Dupree and executive producer for Epicurious TV on the Discovery Channel. She's made cookies with Dwanye “The Rock” Johnson, foraged for berries in the Alaskan wilderness, harvested capers in Sicily, and beguiled celebrities such as Jane Fonda and Bill Clinton with her cooking -- but it all started in her grandmother's country kitchen. Virginia is the author of a number of books including Lighten Up, Y'all, Basic to Brilliant, Y'all, Okra, and Grits.On the show, we discuss how she got into writing cookbooks, how her cooking style has changed, and her wellness journey which has led to her losing 70 pounds. We talk about food media, and credible sources for recipes and cooking tips. Virginia's also passionate about sustainable seafood, and we discuss that as well.SponsorLooking to make better pizza? How about bagels, bread, or English muffins? Then you need a Baking Steel. Don't just take my word for it. Kenji López-Alt of Serious Eats/The Food Lab said “this is the answer I've been waiting for to produce consistently awesome pizza over and over”.   ===========Virginia Willis===========Virginia's Instagram Virginia's's Website Virginia's FacebookVirginia's TwitterVirginia's Eating Well Recipes ==========================CHEFS WITHOUT RESTAURANTS==========================If you enjoy the show, and would like to support it financially, check out our Patreon, or you can donate through Venmo or Buy Me a Coffee.  Get the Chefs Without Restaurants Newsletter Visit Our Amazon Store (we get paid when you buy stuff)Chefs Without Restaurants Facebook pageChefs Without Restaurants private Facebook groupChefs Without Restaurants InstagramFounder Chris Spear's personal chef business Perfect Little Bites  

Curious about how pro chefs eat? How they stay well? What they're cooking off the clock? This episode is for YOU. Virginia Willis is a Georgia-born, French-trained chef who's years of experience working in food media has had her baking chocolate chip cookies with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson; fishing salmon in Alaska with yours truly (…not quite as cool, but close…?!); harvesting volcanic capers in Sicily, and truffle hunting in France. Today, she runs her own company, Virginia Willis Culinary Enterprises; has authored multiple cookbooks (linked below), and serves as chef-instructor for the digital streaming platform Food Network Kitchen. We discuss: Why meditation is kinda bullshit (and what works better for us both) Why preparation is key to any self-care practice The ritual of preparing, cooking, & serving a multi-course meal (no matter how many/few she's serving) VA's personal health journey & the quarantine routine she's keeping for good. I'm answering this listener question at the top of the episode: What's up with apple cider vinegar being in everything / used by everyone on TikTok?! Does it actually do anything for weight loss/health/your immune system?

Cynthia Graubart and Denise talk about how showing up prepared and doing a great job opens up a world of opportunities. Cynthia is an award-winning cookbook author, cooking teacher, and culinary television producer. She's a James Beard Award Winner and an MFK Fischer Award Winner. Cynthia and Virginia Willis are co-founders of Culinary Media Training. They provide culinary professionals with the skills and confidence needed to work effectively in today's digital environment. CYNTHIA'S LINKS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cynthiagraubart/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cynthiagraubartauthor Website: http://www.cynthiagraubart.com/home Email: cynthia@cynthiagraubart.com Books: https://www.indiebound.org/search/book?keys=Cynthia+Graubart Culinary media training: https://www.culinarymediatraining.com/what-we-do   Women Beyond a Certain Age is an award-winning weekly podcast with Denise Vivaldo. She brings her own lively, humorous, and experienced viewpoint to the topics she discusses with her guests. The podcast covers wide-ranging subjects of importance to older women.   SHOW LINKS Website: https://womenbeyond.podbean.com Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WomenBeyond/ Follow our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WomenBeyond/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenbeyondacertainage/ Episode archive: https://womenbeyond.podbean.com Email us: WomenBeyond@icloud.com Denise Vivaldo is the host of WBACA. Her info lives here: https://denisevivaldogroup.com/ More of Denise's info is here: https://denisevivaldo.com Cindie Flannigan is the producer WBACA. Her info lives here: https://linktr.ee/cindieflannigan Denise and Cindie's books: https://www.amazon.com/Denise-Vivaldo/e/B001K8QNRA%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

It's almost time to get back in the kitchen for Fall cooking! We're joined by Georgia-born and French-trained chef Virginia Willis, who has worked with Martha Stewart, Bobby Flay and Nathalie Dupree.  She is currently a featured instructor on Food Network Kitchen and brings sound advice for your recipes as well as some crazy celebrity stories! Plus, Melissa & Jenn get tickled talking about the kitchens they grew up in. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Virginia Willis and Denise chat about gaining weight, losing weight, eating healthier, and the apps Weight Watchers and Noom. Virginia has a new booklet out, Fresh Start: My Real Life Daily Guide to Healthy Eating and Weight Loss. Watch Virginia’s show, Cookbooks with Virginia, on her Facebook page and on her YouTube channel. If you miss the live show you can always watch it later on IGTV. Follow and enter to win a free copy of the cookbook of the week every Friday morning on Instagram. You can learn more about Virginia and buy her books on her website.   Women Beyond a Certain Age is an award-winning weekly podcast with Denise Vivaldo. She brings her own lively, humorous, and experienced viewpoint to the topics she discusses with her guests. The podcast covers wide-ranging subjects of importance to older women. Visit our podcast website, join our Facebook Group and like our Page, get links to past episodes on our community website, follow us on Instagram or drop us a line! Denise Vivaldo, host and producer. Denise’s books on Amazon. Producer, editor, and everything even remotely techie is handled by Cindie Flannigan. See Cindie’s work here. Join our community, listen to past episodes, or drop us a line!

What is sustainable seafood? Should you buy farm-raised or wild caught? How do you find responsibly-caught, sustainable fish? Virginia Willis, chef, James Beard Award-winning Cookbook Author and a Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Blue Ribbon Task Force Member, will share her passion and expertise on what sustainable seafood is, how to find it and how to cook it. Useful Links http://virginiawillis.com/ https://www.facebook.com/ChefVirginiaWillis/ http://instagram.com/virginiawillis https://twitter.com/virginiawillis https://www.linkedin.com/in/virginiawillis Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

Virginia Willis recently chatted with Denise on her show Cookbooks with Virginia. It was so much fun that we’re posting it here! You can catch Virginia’s show on her Facebook page and on her YouTube channel. If you miss the live show you can always watch it later on IGTV. Follow and enter to win a free copy of the cookbook of the week every Friday morning on Instagram. You can learn more about Virginia and buy her books on her website. Women Beyond a Certain Age is an award-winning weekly podcast with Denise Vivaldo. She brings her own lively, humorous, and experienced viewpoint to the topics she discusses with her guests. The podcast covers wide-ranging subjects of importance to older women. Visit our podcast website, join our Facebook Group and like our Page, get links to past episodes on our community website, follow us on Instagram or drop us a line! Denise Vivaldo, host and producer. Denise’s books on Amazon. Producer, editor, and everything even remotely techie is handled by Cindie Flannigan. See Cindie’s work here. Join our community, listen to past episodes, or drop us a line!

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/).

Virginia Willis is one of the most celebrated Southern cookbook authors working today. She’s based in Georgia, but every year, she comes to Austin on a culinary tour with Central Market. Statesman food writer Addie Broyles chats with Willis about how Central Market’s cooking school compares to others around the country, what to do with all those tomatoes and peaches, and why summer is her favorite time of year to cook.

Jocelyn Guest and Erika Nakamura are the butchers behind J&E SmallGoods, a newly launched quote-on-quote Mom & Mom Shop that makes mail-order hot dogs, kielbasa, and bratwurst. There are more meats are in the pipeline. They have dedicated their careers to supporting local family farms that raise animals with big space, clean water, good feed and respect. They believe you shouldn’t have to support the industrial food supply just to enjoy hot dog. Jocelyn and Erika are partners in both business and life, which is a bit of a running theme on this show. I’m referring to my conversations with Jody Williams and Rita Sodi who run Via Carota together in New York City, Mona Talbott and Kate Arding who run Talbott & Arding in Hudson New York, and the two couples on the bonus episode from Atlanta— Deborah VanTrece and Lorraine Lane from Twisted Soul Cookhouse and Pours and Virginia Willis, the cookbook author, and Lisa Ekus, the literary agent. Like I was able to with each of those couples, I got to talk to Jocelyn and Erika about what drives them as business owners and what their work means to them as both individuals and as a couple. Prior to starting J&E Small Goods, Jocelyn and Erika ran White Gold Butchers on the Upper West Side of New York and then moved north of New York City, not terribly far from where Grace and I live, had a daughter named Nina, and got to work building their new company. They joined me, Nina too!, to talk about the genesis of their new company, life as new parents, sandwiches and much much more. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Follow-up links: https://www.oxo.com/8-piece-snap-glass-rectangle-container-set.html https://www.jesmallgoods.com/ https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/nancy/queer-money-matters GREAT JONES - COOKON!!!

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

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.

Virginia Willis, Chef and cookbook author, joins Hanna and Robert to talk about the "Global South". Theme song by The Bluestone Ramblers (thebluestoneramblers.com)

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

Shaker Meets Southern with Virginia Willis Gardens with Round Stone Barn and Dairy Ell, Hancock Shaker Village; photo by Bestbudbrian; [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons Top Left Tunes

Join Ron and Chef Virginia Willis who Is The Embodiment Of What It Really Takes To Reach The Highest Levels Of Cooking, GREAT show!

Maryville native, Matt Sterling and building tiny homes that leave a tiny footprint. Mary Constantine shares with us Virginia Willis's delicious tomato sandwich recipe.

This episode of Week in Review covers restaurant equipment absconsion, corporate sustainability issues in the food industry, and why Japanese people live longer lives than Americans. Jack and Erin welcome Heritage Radio alum, Talia Ralph, on to The Breakdown to talk about the new food and culture website, Taste Talks. LAST GREAT BITE Every episode of Week In Review opens with a recap of the last great thing Jack and Erin ate, and how you can try it too. JACK: Clam chowder poutine from The Darling in Charleston, SC ERIN: The taste of Fall: beef and emmer soup straight out of her freezer archives FEATURED EPISODES Get caught up on the highlight reel of clips from the last week of HRN’s programming. Never Have I Ever from Charleston Wine + Food Hosted by Jack Inslee, Erin Fairbanks, and Allison Hamlin With guests Virginia Willis (cookbook author), Blake Hartwick (Bonterra), and John Lewis (Lewis Barbecue) What Doesn’t Kill You Episdoe #184: Target Goes Cage Free (3/7/16) Hosted by Katy Keiffer With guest Leah Garces, Executive Director of Compassion in World Farming USA Japan Eats Episode #35: Dedicated to Fish (3/7/16) Hosted by Akiko Katayama With guest Yuji Haraguchi of Okonomi//YUJI Ramen and Japanese-style fish market Osakana The Breakdown: A guest or caller from around the industry joins the show to talk about their recent work. Jack and Erin speak with Talia Ralph, Editor of Taste Talks, a new website that looks at the intersection of food and culture. Talia describes it as a resource tailored to people who want to bridge the gap between food, music, politics, art, and design. Some of Taste Talks’ featured content: Pizza Pals: a music-food video series hosted by Colin Agendorf The Refugee Crisis is Being Fought Food First Talking Taste with Brooklyn Brewery’s Steve Hindy Fashion and Food Go Together Better Than You’d Think Hosting a panel at South Bites at SXSW next week (we will also be there!) Big-Ups: Jack and Erin “big up” people, places, and things they're totally digging right now. JACK: Our killer high school intern, Malcolm Fisher, from ICE in Union Square ERIN: Elijah “The Mayor” Clark, a New York-based muay thai fighter who faced racial discrimination on the PATH train coming back from Hoboken this past week. He bravely shared his story via social media, which shed light on the impact that political and social discourse has on people in the real world. Elijah is fighting on March 25 at Broad Street Ballroom.

Master Baker and social rights advocate, Jessamyn Rodriguez, is Founder/CEO of East Harlem's Hot Bread Kitchen a nonprofit baking enterprise that trains low-income minority women through Bakers in Training. HBK Incubates fosters small food and beverage businesses. She's author of The "Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook." We talk southern food with chef and food Writer Virginia Willis, author of 5 cookbooks: "Bon Appetit Y'All," Basic To Brilliant, Y'all" "Lighten Up Y'all." "Grits," and "Okra,:This show is broadcast live 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/).

A CONVERSATION WITH RENOWN CHEF VIRGINIA WILLIS ON HER COOKBOOK:LIGHTEN UP YA'LL.You can still enjoy all the great southern dishes and be healthy!

Presented by VerTerra Dinnerware, hosted by Four Seasons Resort, Palm Beach during the 2014 Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival on Saturday, December 13, 2014

Join me and Chef Virginia as we discuss some of her amazing Southern recipes from her very successful cookbook, Bon Appetit, Ya'll!

Southern food writer and author Virginia Willis takes us along on the journey she embarked upon years ago, from the rural South to France and back again. Willis discusses how she blended classic French, traditional southern, and contemporary American cuisines to create her lavishly illustrated cookbook, "Bon Appétit, Y'All."