NANNIE: CHOCOLATE CAKE AND COMFORT

NANNIE: CHOCOLATE CAKE AND COMFORT

My grandmother Nannie was a sturdy woman of Choctaw decent who cooked the most delicious food,  but she passed on without leaving me a single morsel of the culinary wisdom and life lessons my mother’s generation took for granted. And, yet, her raspy voice of affection...

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VERA BECK: GRACE AND CORNBREAD

VERA BECK: GRACE AND CORNBREAD

By the time I was 30 years old, I could count my Southern life experiences on one hand. When you grow up in a tiny family in Los Angeles, sheltered by expatriates who left skid-marks when they quit the South, it is easy to believe that your family drama does not play...

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EDNA LEWIS: A MENTOR FOR ALL

EDNA LEWIS: A MENTOR FOR ALL

I was privileged to meet Edna Lewis, the woman some have called the “Julia Child of Southern Cuisine,” in 1985 at the annual meeting of registered dietitians in Los Angeles, where she was drawing a crowd of autograph seekers. I was young and didn’t know a thing about...

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