I came from a working family. My parents were young, and both went to college after their children were<br>born. | was the little mama, the oldest of three, and the support for my parents. | picked up my brother and<br>sister from school and daycare. | made them snacks and helped them with their homework while we<br>waited for our parents to come home. During the week my mother cooked quick meals like pasta with a<br>salad or canned soup with sandwiches<br><br>But Sundays were different. On Sundays, she cooked all day.<br><br>My mom was born and raised in Waynesboro, Georgia, a small town just south of Augusta. It was on<br>Sundays that she reminded her young family where she came from. She would roast chicken and serve it<br>with rice and gravy and greens. We ate glazed ham with sweet potatoes and cabbage. She didn't bake, but<br>there was always combread or biscuits on the table. And the real treat, fried chicken! She made the best<br>fried chicken. She used a castiron pan and grease she had saved, to be used only for chicken. It was a<br>meal that took hours, and we only had it sometimes. She would always make pan gravy, mashed potatoes,<br>and sweet peas to go alongside the crispy meat. Really good fried chicken is stil one of my favorite foods.<br>Mom's Sunday cooking—now that was food to me. Living up North, soul food and southern food were<br>commonly considered to be one and the same. People think of soul food as BBQ ribs, macaroni and<br>cheese, buttermilk biscuits, and sweet tea. Our Sunday dinners taught me about my family and what we<br>ate, and helped me distinguish real southern from soul food. But | had no idea that there was so much<br>more,<br><br>1n 2000, I decided to change my career path from social work to becoming a chef. My decision was<br>prompted by a few work dinners where coworkers complimented me on my sweet potatoes and roasted<br>chicken. With a half-cocked aspiration, | left my job in Brooklyn and decided to attend culinary school<br><br>The school | attended was French based, like all culinary schools at the time and the majority, stil, today. |<br>had chosen it because it was geared toward career changers and had an excellent work-study program. |<br>also liked that the school took the view that French food was the mother of all professional cuisines, so my<br>education's foundation of principles, | thought, would be priceless.<br><br>During the first phase of classes our chef instructor asked us to write an essay about someone who<br>