Cookbook Club

Bookshelf: A Seat At The Table

Bury your nose, whet your appetite

COVER Secrets of the Southern Table

Secrets of the Southern Table

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018

Chef and author Virginia Willis grew up immersed in Southern cuisine. She learned to make
biscuits in her grandma’s Georgia kitchen and spent her elementary school years fishing and
crabbing with her parents in Louisiana, and learning to love regional specialties like gumbo and
jambalaya. But in her latest release, Willis steps beyond her personal experience to set the record
straight—that Southern food isn’t all fried chicken and biscuits. With reverence to the regional
differences and the racial and class disparities that fuel Southern foodways, Willis introduces
each chapter with glimpses into subjects like Louisiana rice culture, Vietnamese shrimpers in
Texas, farmers descended from enslaved people, and orchard owners in Appalachia, among
many more. Aptly named, Secrets of the Southern Table: A Food Lover’s Tour of the Global
South includes recipes with global influence, indicative of the diverse South Willis wants the
world to understand. Asian Cajun barbecue shrimp fit naturally alongside Meme’s cornbread and
oyster dressing, representative of the melting pot that comprises the region’s diverse culinary
heritage.

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Date Published: 08.13.24

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