With Black History Month in February Chef Emily Meggett is a role model for women, men, and families as a well-known cook and chef. She cooked for friends and family into her late 80's. She died at 90 in 2023 known for her talent for cooking as a chef and her hospitality.
Gullah Geechee Cooking
She is known for Gullah Geechee cooking which is a subgroup or small community of African Americans that live in what is known as the low country of South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, the coastal plains, and sea islands. She lived on Edisto Island in South Carolina.
The group of people have traced the recipes and culture from West Africa and preserved recipes and cultural traditions to pass down to their families. Emily Meggett has preserved many traditional recipes she learned to cook from her grandmother and Julia Brown.
She learned to do it right and if she made mistakes she had to start over and do it again. Chef Meggett admits she tried cooking because she did not like working in the fields and she was given the choice. She cooks traditional recipes like Red Rice, Shrimp and Grits, and fried chicken.
Started Cooking At 12
When she was growing up she started cooking at 12 years old. Her family grew their own gardens with vegetables, beans, and fruit. They raised hog, chickens and livestock and even rice. During her childhood she babysat for wealthy white families and their help.
She cooked mostly for wealthy white families and one family her job as a cook lasted 45 years. Her grandmother taught her to always make more than needed in case friends and family stopped by to visit. It was the hospitable way to treat visitors.
In her late 80's she wrote a book called Gullah Geechee Home Cooking. Most of the recipes she made at home she never measured the ingredients. For the cookbook she had to learn to measure ingredients for the recipes. It was a new way of cooking for her.
Her cookbook has delicious recipes, stories, and history. At 89 she had 55 grandchildren and great grandchildren. Her recipes for fried chicken only uses for ingredients, chicken, seasoning salt, vegetable oil, and self-rising flour.
The cooking is described as lighter and more seasonal that other types of Southern cooking. Recipes use fresh fish, poultry, rice, corn, peas, broccoli, beans, red peppers, okara, squash, tomatoes, onions and seasonal vegetables and herbs
She belonged to local church and is known for helping the sick and grieving by bringing them food. She credits a friend Becky Smith for inspiring her to write a cookbook and they worked on several years before she was offered a book deal.
She remains a role model and leader as a woman chef for southern cooking.
References:
For Gullah Geechee Chef Emily Meggett's Cooking Was About Heart by Anastasia Tsioulcas, April 24, 2023, NPR
Charleston Food and Wine, Emily Meggett 2023 Short Bio
A Four Ingredient Fried Chicken Recipe With A Story To Tell by Kayla Stewart, June 29, 2022 Eater
Routes Magazine, A Guide to African American Culture by Sandhi Small Santini, February 16, 2023
A Life Full of Gullah Geechee Food Gathered In A Beautiful Cookbook, Garden and Gun, by Jai Jones, May 12, 2022
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