Gullah Geechee Home Cooking : Recipes from the Matriarch of Edisto Island

A New York Times bestseller and NPR Best Book of the Year, this is the first major Gullah Geechee cookbook. Emily Meggett, the matriarch of Edisto Island, shares her recipes and the history of an essential American community.

Emily Meggett was a celebrated Gullah Geechee chef and community leader from Edisto Island, South Carolina. Her rich culinary heritage shines through this beautiful cookbook, published shortly before her passing in her ninetieth year.

Her recipes and stories have preserved and honored the Gullah Geechee culture, making her a revered figure in both her local community and beyond.

Emily Meggett’s Gullah food is rich and flavorful. Heirloom rice, fresh-caught seafood, local game, and vegetables are key to her recipes for regional delicacies like fried oysters, collard greens, and stone-ground grits.

This cookbook has snippets of the Meggett family history on Edisto Island, which stretches back into the 19th century, and some of their delicious and accessible recipes include: 

• Shrimp and Grits with Gravy
• Okra Gumbo
• Macaroni and Cheese
• Barbecue Ribs and Sauce
• Black-Eyed Peas
• Chocolate Cream Pie

Rich in both flavor and history, Meggett’s Gullah Geechee Home Cooking is a testament to the syncretism of West African and American cultures that makes her home of Edisto Island so unique.

The inspiring and warm photographs add to the joy bursting from Gullah Geechee Home Cooking.

Emily Meggett (1932–2023) was the matriarch of the Gullah community on Edisto Island, South Carolina. She has been featured on television and in print by PBS, the Food Network, Bon Appétit, Eater, and NPR. She is also a member of the family who was raised in the Point of Pines cabin, a 19th-century slave cabin from Edisto Island that has been relocated to Washington, DC, as the central exhibit of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.