In the introduction to Soul Food Odyssey, Chef Stephanie Tyson
describes her early feelings when people assumed her Sweet Potatoes
restaurant was a "soul food" establishment. "Soul food was like the
boxer George Foreman," she says. "He would stand there and go
toe-to-toe. It wasn't pretty, but he got the job done, and you'd be on
your butt. Southern food, on the other hand, was like Muhammad Ali--a
little prettier, and you'd still be on your butt! I wanted Ali. I missed
the connection that they were both great fighters. Once I got off my
high horse, I wanted to know, from a culinary point of view, how do you
make what is essentially castaway food into a 'cuisine'?" In Soul Food
Odyssey, Tyson takes readers along on her journey back to find the food
her grandmother called "sumntaeat." The recipes she shares include how
to cook various parts of the pig from "the router to the tooter"; other
meat dishes, including everything from stewed turkey wings and pot roast
to a Low Country boil; what Tyson calls "stone soul sides," including
crackling cornbread, hoecakes, and, of course, different kinds of
greens; soups and stews including oxtail and fish head stew and
"Everything in It Vegetable Soup"; and desserts "to sell your soul for."
Along with the recipes come Tyson's comments, which reflect her biting
wit as well as her deep appreciation of the food she has come to
embrace.
Stephanie L. Tyson is a creative chef who has turned growing up in the
South into the soul of her restaurant, Sweet Potatoes. Born in North
Carolina, Tyson spent countless hours dreaming of the bright lights of
anywhere else. But once she left to travel and cook around the world,
she could not believe what a relief it was to come home again. Trained
in culinary arts at Baltimore International College, Chef Tyson opened
her award-winning restaurant with her partner, Vivián Joiner, in 2003 in
the downtown Arts District of Winston-Salem, where they live.
