Princess Pamela ruled a small realm, but her powers ranged far and wide. Her speakeasy-style restaurant in Manhattan was for three decades a hip salon, with regulars from Andy Warhol to Diana Ross. Her iconic Southern dishes influenced chefs nationwide, and her cookbook became a bible for a generation who yearned for the home cooking left behind in the Great Migration. One of the earliest books to coin soul food, this touchstone of African-American cuisine fell out of print more than forty years ago.

When it comes to soul food, there is an elite pantheon of grand dame authors: Patti Labelle, Sylvia Woods, and Edna Lewis. For their fans, who crave authentic African-American recipes, this publication marks a major rediscovery: the original soul diva, Princess Pamela, who paved the way for all the others with this 1969 cult classic. This lost classic cookbook was treasured by past generations as a bible of soul cooking and is now back in print after more than a quarter century. As the national trend for Southern cuisine continues, this book offers a sure line to authenticity. It represents the cookbook of the Great Migration, the recipes that black people who had left the South held on to as a way to preserve their heritage and memories.

Sylvia's Family Soul Food Cookbook begins as Sylvia recalls her childhood, when she lived with both her mother and her grandmother -- the town's only midwives. The entire community of Hemingway, South Carolina, shared responsibilities, helped raise all of the children, and worked side by side together every day in the bean fields. Perhaps most important, the community shared its food and recipes. When Sylvia set out to write this cookbook, she decided to hold a cook-off back home in Hemingway at Jeremiah Church. Family and friends of all ages shared their favorite dishes as well as their spirit and love for one another. The recipes offered at the cook-off were then compiled to create this incredible collection, along with many of Sylvia's and the Woods family's own recipes. Here are the kinds of recipes you'd find if you visited the Woods family's home. Sylvia's daughter Bedelia is well known for her Barbecued Beef Short Ribs, which are as sassy and spicy as Bedelia herself. Kenneth, Sylvia's youngest son, has loved to fish ever since he was a child, spending his summers by the fishing hole in Hemingway. Now Kenneth's son, DeSean, enjoys fishing, too. Kenneth's Honey Lemon Tilefish, DeSean's favorite, is just one of Kenneth's special recipes presented here. And there are many, many other wonderful dishes, too. In this remarkable cookbook, Sylvia has gathered more than 125 soul food classics, including mouthwatering recipes for okra, collard greens, Southern-style pound cakes, hearty meat and seafood stews and casseroles, salads, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and more. These recipes are straight from the heart of the Woods community of family and friends. Now Sylvia gives them to you to share with your loved ones. Bring them into your home and experience a little bit of Hemingway's soul.

You don't have to be southern to cook southern. From the New York Times food writers who defended lard and demystified gumbo comes a collection of exceptional southern recipes for everyday cooks. The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook tells the story of the brothers' culinary coming-of-age in Charleston—how they triumphed over their northern roots and learned to cook southern without a southern grandmother. Here are recipes for classics like Fried Chicken, Crab Cakes, and Pecan Pie, as well as little-known preparations such as St. Cecilia Punch, Pickled Peaches, and Shrimp Burgers. Others bear the hallmark of the brothers' resourceful cooking style—simple, sophisticated dishes like Blackened Potato Salad, Saigon Hoppin' John, and Buttermilk-Sweet Potato Pie that usher southern cooking into the twenty-first century without losing sight of its roots. With helpful sourcing and substitution tips, this is a practical and personal guide that will have readers cooking southern tonight, wherever they live.

Winner, James Beard Foundation Book Award, 2016 Art of Eating Prize, 2015 BCALA Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation, Black Caucus of the American Library Association, 2016 Women of African descent have contributed to America’s food culture for centuries, but their rich and varied involvement is still overshadowed by the demeaning stereotype of an illiterate “Aunt Jemima” who cooked mostly by natural instinct. To discover the true role of black women in the creation of American, and especially southern, cuisine, Toni Tipton-Martin has spent years amassing one of the world’s largest private collections of cookbooks published by African American authors, looking for evidence of their impact on American food, families, and communities and for ways we might use that knowledge to inspire community wellness of every kind. The Jemima Code presents more than 150 black cookbooks that range from a rare 1827 house servant’s manual, the first book published by an African American in the trade, to modern classics by authors such as Edna Lewis and Vertamae Grosvenor. The books are arranged chronologically and illustrated with photos of their covers; many also display selected interior pages, including recipes. Tipton-Martin provides notes on the authors and their contributions and the significance of each book, while her chapter introductions summarize the cultural history reflected in the books that follow. These cookbooks offer firsthand evidence that African Americans cooked creative masterpieces from meager provisions, educated young chefs, operated food businesses, and nourished the African American community through the long struggle for human rights. The Jemima Code transforms America’s most maligned kitchen servant into an inspirational and powerful model of culinary wisdom and cultural authority.

Who knows how to convert a gay man into a straight lover using a pineapple upside-down cake? Only Ambrosia Bourgeois, The Food Temptress, can accomplish such a task. The New Orleans Goddess of Gastronomy uses food to seduce men in hopes of creating Mister Right. Paralleling southern cuisine, each short story captures the hearts and minds of different men. In the Power of the Pudding Chapter, Ambrosia realizes that her bread pudding cannot withstand the demands of an associate minister¿s plans to make her a dutiful wife. When she decides to forget about him and travels to Atlanta to visit her friend, she ends up in the bathroom with Black Thunder, a local stripper. It is not her fault; the peach cobbler was intended for the birthday girl.Ambrosia perfects her craft by using traditional recipes from her deceased grandmother and occasionally consulting her mysterious aunt. When she discovers that her meals fall short of converting the man to her specifications, she moves on to the next one¿a total of 16 ranging from the local police chief to a Bourbon Street musician. Will she reach her goal before the monstrous hurricane hits her city? The Food Temptress serves a delectable treat connected by Ambrosia¿s continuing quest for both romantic and culinary perfection.

A delicious ode to morning foods, featuring eggs, biscuits, meats, and pancakes you’ll want to start every day with. Breakfast brings beauty and enthusiasm to the morning meal. George Weld draws on his passion and Southern roots to create the fresh, satisfying dishes his Williamsburg restaurant, Egg, has been serving for ten years. Breakfast begins with simple techniques that transform familiar ingredients into transcendent meals. A pantry section shows the ingredients to have on hand for whipping up delicious morning meals. Following are recipes for eggs (including the restaurant’s signature Eggs Rothko), grains, meats, produce, sauces and syrups, juices, and pastries. Among the beloved recipes from Egg’s kitchen are dishes adapted for meals at any hour, such as salads with eggs and smoked fish, fried chicken and biscuits, and toast with greens. Running through the book are contributions from farmers, fishermen, and athletes on the nourishing meals they fuel themselves with in the morning. Accompanied by images from Weld’s own farm (which supplies Egg with many of its ingredients), this book will make breakfast the meal you dream about at night, and the most anticipated part of your morning.