Culinary Conversations

presented by

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Jubilee Talks:

Chris Williams with Mike Jordan

introduced by Toni Tipton-Martin

Sponsored by The Local Palate

Houston chef Chris Williams sits down with Mike Jordan to talk about the impact of black and enslaved chefs on American cooking. They will also discuss Williams' personal history in the culinary world, the impact his family has had on him, including his great grandmother Lucille B. Smith, who worked as culinary director at girls’ summer Camp Waldemar and penned a cookbook, along with innumerable other achievements in hospitality, as well as his brother and business partner, Ben. Join us for this conversation about history, family, and local food.

About the Panelists:

Chris Williams lives in Houston, Texas where he is chef and owner of Lucille’s, a local favorite restaurant named after Williams’ great grandmother. Lucille’s serves a variety of inventive takes on classic southern fare, from chili biscuits topped off with cheese and dark chocolate and braised duck confit served atop sautéed collard greens with a parsnip puree.

Mike Jordan is an Atlanta-based writer who covers food, entertainment, technology, business, travel and culture for local and national media, including The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Atlanta Magazine, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Eater, Hypepotamus, and Thrillist, where he launched the Atlanta edition as founding editor. He lives in East Point with his daughter Sienna and wife Jacinta, with whom he hosts a recurring literary event called Lit: Books, Booze & Beats.

About the Introducer:

Toni Tipton-Martin is the author of Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries of African American Cooking, a beautifully-photographed recipe collection that takes African American cooking beyond soul food, and The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks, a widely-acclaimed, annotated bibliography that tells the story behind her rare collection. The Jemima Code also is the title of a traveling exhibit, featuring larger-than-life images of black cooks at work, curated from Martin’s gallery of authors. She is a contributor to the forthcoming anthology, Southern Women: More Than 100 Stories of Innovators, Artists, and Iconsand to Edna Lewis: At the Table with an American Original. In 2005, she published an historic reprint of an early 20th century cookbook, The Blue Grass Cook Book, by Minnie C. Fox, which contains the first known photographs of African American cooks and presents a new portrait of a role model working women can respect and learn from today. Toni also is co-author of A Taste of Heritage: New African-American Cuisine and wrote the chapter on the South for Culinaria: The Food of the United States.

Sponsored by The Local Palate

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Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking by Toni Tipton-Martin available through local, indie bookseller Tall Tales

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