Virginia Willis

From the venue:

Featuring new recipes and photographs, this revised and updated edition of Virginia Willis’s best-selling culinary classic also features new variations and commentary on the original recipes plus options using healthier ingredients. More than two hundred heritage and new recipes seamlessly blend into a thoroughly modern Southern cookbook.

The daughter and granddaughter of consummate Southern cooks, Willis is also a classically trained French chef and an award-winning writer. These divergent influences come together splendidly in Bon Appétit, Y’all, a modern Southern chef’s passionate and evolving homage to her culinary roots.

Espousing a simple-is-best philosophy, Willis uses good ingredients, concentrates on sound French technique, and lets the food shine in a style she calls “refined Southern cuisine.” Approachable recipes are arranged by chapter into starters and nibbles; salads and slaws; eggs and dairy; main dishes with fowl, fish, and other meats; sides; biscuits and breads; soups and stews; desserts; and sauces and preserves.

Collected here are stylishly updated Southern and French classics (New Southern Chicken and Herb Dumplings, Boeuf Bourguignonne, Fried Catfish Fingers with Country Rémoulade) and traditional favorites (Meme’s Biscuits, Mama’s Apple Pie, Okra and Tomatoes), and it wouldn’t be Southern cooking without vegetables (Cauliflower and Broccoli Parmesan, Green Beans Provençal, and Smoky Collard Greens). More than one hundred photographs bring to life both Virginia’s food and the bounty of her native Georgia.

You’ll also find well-written stories, a wealth of tips and techniques from a skilled and innovative teacher, and the wisdom of a renowned authority in American regional cuisine, steeped to her core in the food, culinary knowledge, and hospitality of the South.

Bon Appétit, Y’all is Virginia Willis’s way of saying, “Welcome to my Southern kitchen. Pull up a chair.” Once you have tasted her food, you’ll want to stay a good long while.