From Hot Buttermilk Biscuits and Sweet Potato Pie to Salmon Cakes on Pepper Rice and Gullah Fish Stew, Gullah Geechee food is an essential cuisine of American history. It is the culinary representation of the ocean, rivers, and rich fertile loam in and around the coastal South. From the Carolinas to Georgia and Florida, this is where descendants of enslaved Africans came together to make extraordinary food, speaking the African Creole language called Gullah Geechee.
In this groundbreaking and beautiful cookbook, Matthew Raiford pays homage to this cuisine that nurtured his family for seven generations. In 2010, Raiford's Nana handed over the deed to the family farm to him and his sister, and Raiford rose to the occasion, nurturing the farm that his great-great-great grandfather, a freed slave, purchased in 1874. In this collection of heritage and updated recipes, he traces a history of community and family brought together by food.
BIO
Matthew Raiford was named a 2018 James Beard Award semifinalist and has been featured in the New York Times, Southern Living, and more.
Amy Paige Condon coauthored the New York Times best-selling The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook.
REVIEWS
"Bress 'n' Nyam is a gem for anyone who is looking to understand more about the deep history of the Gullah Geechee people. Matthew Raiford lovingly tells tales of the land and his family's connection to it, at the same time as he provides heritage and innovative recipes that evoke memories of meals shared, of tables blessed, and of deep family legacy." --Jessica B. Harris, PhD, culinary historian, author, and lecturer
"There's a very delicious unintended consequence of reading (and cooking from) Matthew's book: Bress 'n' Nyam more than gives people a great appreciation of Black Culture, it further shows the diversity of Black Culture through different shades and hues, with Gullah Geechee cuisine as the Matriarch of the Black Food Family." --Todd Richards, chef and award-winning author of Soul
"Bress 'n' Nyam means 'bless and eat' in the Gullah language, and Raiford's book is both a celebration of his homecoming and an introduction to Gullah Geechee cuisine that digs into the painful history and complex flavors of African foodways in the American South." --Eater