Book excerpt: “Virginia’s recipes are useful for every home cook, and offer a plateful of Southern comfort . . . All this makes for good cooking and reading.”—Nathalie Dupree, author, TV personality, and James Beard Award winner In Secrets of the Southern Table, award-winning chef and cookbook author Virginia Willis takes you on a tour of today’s South—a region rich in history and cultural diversity. With her signature charm and wit, Virginia shares many well-known Southern recipes like Pimento Cheese Tomato Herb Pie and “Cathead” Biscuits, but also some surprising revelations drawn from the area’s many global influences, like Catfish Tacos with Avocado Crema, Mississippi-Style Char Siu Pork Tenderloin, and Greek Okra and Tomatoes. In addition to the recipes, Virginia profiles some of the diverse chefs, farmers, and other culinary influencers who are shaping contemporary Southern cuisine. Together, these stories and the delicious recipes that accompany them celebrate the rich and ever-evolving heritage of Southern cooking. “Arepas inspired by a Venezuelan stand in an Atlanta market where Martin Luther King Jr.’s family shopped; lemon-herb potatoes born of the Greek fishing village of Tarpon Springs, Florida: to hell with that old moonlight and corn pone schtick. Virginia Willis showcases a contemporary South that is dizzily and honestly diverse.”—John T. Edge, author, The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South “An ode to a regional cuisine rich in culture and soul . . . a culinary quilt filled with reverence for the past, marvel of the present, and excitement for the future of Southern foodways.”—Sandra A. Gutierrez, award-winning author of The New Southern-Latino Table