Sallie Ann Robinson's Kitchen

“The latest excellent entry from Robinson (Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way) is a more personal take on her childhood on Daufuskie Island in South Carolina. The once-remote area—telephone service didn’t exist there until 1973—populated by African-Americans and Native Americans, is known for its hybrid low-country/African-American Gullah culture. Robinson is an inviting and charming guide, as she introduces classic seafood-focused recipes for salads (shrimp, tomato, and red onion), sides (seafood fried rice with crabmeat, oysters, and shrimp), and basic mains such as a blue crab stew, crispy fried grouper, or shrimp and blue crab burgers. Robinson includes several meat dishes—Gullah gumbo with chicken and fried okra, smothered fried chicken, duck stuffed with oyster rice—alongside such Southern staples as green lima beans with ham hocks and pecan pie. Essays by Robinson on her near-idyllic childhood there (she recalls being taught by Prince of Tides author Pat Conroy) appear throughout. This delightful cookbook also serves as an excellent regional culinary history.”—Publishers Weekly

“In her third cookbook, Robinson intersperses family recipes with tales of her life on the remote island of Daufuskie, which is part of South Carolina’s Lowcountry. Featuring southern favorites like Grandmomma’s seafood gumbo, southern smuttered fried chicken, or country fried steak with brown gravy, Robinson’s recipes include easy-to-follow steps and accessible ingredients. Interspersed throughout the book are Robinson’s reflections on her identity as a sixth generation Gullah and Native American, and how her parents’ principles guided who she is today. Robinson’s description of the year author Pat Conroy spent teaching her and her 17 classmates is especially memorable, and she also details the connection she made with him that continued until his death. Robinson’s pride in her culture is evident in these recipes that reflect her heritage. She also encourages cooks to improvise and have fun in the kitchen. Above all, she feels that ‘a good cook knows that there ain’t but one way to do it and that is to give it dah love while you are cooking.’”—Booklist

Part personal narrative, part culinary and cultural archive, [Robinson’s] newest cookbook . . . documents the variety of dishes passed down through Gullah families for generations.’—Southern Living ‘A book to treasure as both a cultural history resource and a tempting cookbook. Robinson attracts with her recipes, but sets the hook with her immersive descriptions of a unique American place and time, noting that ‘One of the best ways to remember history is to taste it.’’—Foreword Reviews

This authentic collection of recipes is a hymn of praise not only to Gullah food but also to the ancient traditions of the West African culture still lingering in the Lowcountry of the American South.’ —Cassandra King Conroy, author of The Same Sweet Girls ‘Deliciously filled with mouthwatering recipes and heartfelt stories, this book is a cultural testament to genuine home-style Lowcountry cooking.’ —Virginia Willis, James Beard Award–winning cookbook author and chef ‘Chock-full of old-fashioned wisdom and peppered with the unique and beautiful Gullah dialect, Sallie Ann Robinson’s Kitchen will feed your hungry soul with authentic Gullah cuisine.’—Katie Moseman, author of Fixin’ to Eat: Southern Cooking for the Southern at Heart ‘Robinson shines new light on ancestral wisdom from her elders and introduces the kind of imaginative cooking that Gullah families have cherished for generations.’—Toni Tipton-Martin, author of The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks ‘Robinson talks lovingly of growing up in a place where people didn’t have much but shared what they had. She describes meals made from what her family could raise, kill, grow, or catch on land and sea. Life was hard, but life was rich and beautiful on Daufuskie Island.’ —Martha Nesbit, author of Savannah Celebrations: Simple Southern Party Menus ‘A well-seasoned culinary and historical tour of the Gullah culture of the South Carolina Lowcountry.’ —Polly Powers Stramm, author of Bless Your Heart & Mind Your Mama: Sassy, Sweet and Silly Southernisms