Cookbook Club

Matthew Raiford Discusses Soul Food

By: The Local Palate

The African American diaspora launched a wave of cooking traditions and styles throughout the United States that became synonymous with “Southern,” “comfort,” or “down-home” food. As descendants of enslaved people moved throughout and beyond the South, they adapted old family recipes to meet the changing ingredients and socioeconomic conditions. In the mid-twentieth century, the term “soul food” became broadly used to describe the style of food found in Black communities—a style reflected in many food traditions found in the South.

2021’s Gather ‘Round festival in Atlanta invited a panel of chefs and recent cookbook authors to discuss their thoughts on soul food and its influences on their cooking. Panelists included chefarmer (chef-farmer) Matthew Raiford, author of Bress ‘n’ Nyam: Gullah Geechee Recipes from a Sixth Generation Farmer. Born and raised on family farmland in Brunswick, Georgia, Raiford left home at age eighteen and served in the military, traveled internationally, and attended culinary school at Hyde Park in New York. When his grandmother handed him and his sister the deed to Gilliard Farms, telling them they needed to get back to farming the land, Raiford picked up the family practice with a commitment to preserving the cultivation and cooking methods of his ancestors.

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Date Published: 12.06.21
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