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Edna Lewis, the Grand Dame of Southern Cuisine

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My favorite excerpt from The Taste of Country Cooking by Ms. Edna Lewis:

“I will never forget spring mornings in Virginia.  A warm morning and a red sun rising behind a thick fog gave the image of a pale pink veil supported by a gentle breeze that flew or thin marquisette curtains out into the living room, leaving them to fall lazily back.  Being awakened by this irresistible atmosphere we would hop out of bed, clothes in hand, rush downstairs, dress in a sunny spot, and rush out to the barn to find a sweet-faced calf, baby pigs, or perhaps a colt.  We always stopped by the hen house to look at the setting hens sitting in their row of nests along the wall.  They had to be checked often to see if the eggs were moist enough to hatch properly.  I can still remember the moist smell of chickens hatching and making quiet, cuddly noises.  The mother hen would fuss and ruffle her feathers, very annoyed at my mother for lifting her from the nest to sprinkle the eggs.  There would be guineas setting under the woodpile where no one could reach and they would appear one day with a brood that was so swift of movement that one could only get a glimpse of them scampering through the weeds.

I Almost Forgot How Much I Like Girls

It’s easy to get caught up with the day-to-day, and put aside those situations which make the day-to-day actually worth living.  Case in point, I was invited to dinner with women of various careers in the culinary arts; women I knew from a lifetime ago.  It was utterly delightful!  I’d forgotten how satisfying it is to be in the company of women with similar interests. 

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Where Are All The Women - by Laura Shapiro

Women have come a long way from the days of discrimination in the work place, but there are other factors influencing women chefs from rising to the top in the kitchen. Here are the highlights from Laura Shapiro's excellent & timely article in Gourmet:

“...Take a look at the two liveliest and most influential restaurant scenes in the country. In one of them, women chefs are ubiquitous, and so successful that nobody even remembers the word “discrimination.” In the other, you could fit all the big-name female chefs in town under a single bus shelter.”

Cynthia Nims’ New Food Blog, Mon Appetit

(Photo of Cynthia from her website.)

She said she’d never do it, but she went ahead & did it anyway.