This week on WCLK's The Local Take(Saturdays 8am), I reached out to one of my favorite chefs – the Chefarmer Matthew Raiford-- about his new book Bress ‘n’ Nyam (or Bless and Eat). His publishers believe his is the first Gullah Geechee Cookbook from Georgia.
Raiford's book is out at this perfect time, almost as if planned. There has been a renaissance around African-American soul food that includes the Netflix documentary High on the Hog to the Slutty Vegan to black-owned restaurant groups expanding throughout the South.
I ask Raiford how his book happened to come out at this perfect time. He says it was serendipitous and mentions the ancestors being in the right place at the right time. He began working on the book with his writing partner Amy Condon four years ago. His is considered the first Gullah Geechee cookbook from the Georgia coast.
I ask how did he go about choosing the recipes. He shares that the international flavor is part of the influences on the Georgia Coast. Brunswick was a port city and a Spanish territory. There were Portuguese and West African influences as well.
The book is also a history of Raiford’s family and their farm. He speaks about Jupiter Gillard, his ancestor from 1812. He talks about the Union School built on the farm to educate the African-American children between 1907 – 1955.
Some of the the best things about the book are the variations to the recipes. Raiford shares his “Effie’s Shrimp Creole” recipe. To keep up with Chefarmer Matthew Raiford
