Atlanta chef Jennifer Hill Booker has combined a love of Southern food with the classic techniques she learned at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, to create what she calls “modern, Southern, healthy cuisine with a French accent.”
Hill Booker’s first cookbook, “Field Peas to Foie Gras: Southern Recipes With a French Accent” (Pelican Publishing, $30), and the follow-up, “Dinner Déjà Vu: Southern Tonight, French Tomorrow” (Pelican Publishing, $28.95), offer recipes that illustrate her approach.
Last year, Hill Booker, whose roots are in the Mississippi Delta, also launched a new spice line called Your Resident Gourmet Cooks. And, she’s working on opening two restaurants in Springdale, Arkansas.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
But, right now, she’s excited about her new illustrated children’s book, “Jelly Fries a Fish for Dinner” (Tallahatchie Tale, $9.99 on Kindle), which is something of a departure, though Hill Booker does feature her recipe for fried Mississippi catfish in the back of the book.
“My grandparents and great aunts and uncles all were farmers in Charleston, Mississippi,” she said. “We would stay with them every summer. It would be my two sisters, and our cousins, and we just grew up there, watching them farm and cook. My daughters and my nieces and nephews do the same thing.”
Watching the children repeat an important part of their childhood brought back even more memories for Hill Booker and her sister, Erin Hill Williams, who co-authored “Jelly Fries a Fish for Dinner.”
Credit: Jennifer Hill Booker
Credit: Jennifer Hill Booker
“We wanted to capture that feeling, but through a new lens of our kids,” Hill Booker said, “so it will be a series of books, and the first one is starting with my eldest, Jenelle, whose nickname is Jelly. So, it’s just kind of a nod to our upbringing and our heritage, but it’s something every kid and every parent can relate to, with summer, and spending time with people we love.”
Deep Fried Mississippi Catfish
“My earliest memories of fried catfish were at our annual family reunion,” chef Jennifer Hill Booker writes. “Every year, my family would all meet up with all our relatives in Charleston, Mississippi, to celebrate my Big Mama’s birthday. The celebration was kicked off the Friday before Labor Day with a huge fish fry. We would eat the piping hot fish on slices of white bread, with hot pepper sauce and mustard.”
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