Book offers taste of Sweetie Pie’s
Robbie Montgomery isn’t about to stop making her customers’ favorites. Still, her pronouncement is almost a sacrilege, uttered just feet from Sweetie Pie’s steam tables:
“I’m burned out on mac and cheese.”
Hmmm. She’s talking about the beloved comfort dish Guy Fieri showcased on Food Network and the one selected for both a new book on soul food restaurants, “The People’s Place,” and Montgomery’s own “Sweetie Pie’s Cookbook” (Amistad, 211 pages, $28.99).
Of course making thousands of pounds a week of anything could turn off a cook. But the mac and cheese recipe is probably one of the cookbook’s top draws for many Sweetie Pie’s eaters, even if they won’t want to bother with a curious addition that Montgomery doesn’t actually follow: homemade “Better-Than-Velveeta Cheese Spread.” That recipe was suggested by her recipe tester and co-writer, Ramin Ganeshram of Connecticut. The packaged brand is fine, though, with Montgomery.
Still, the mac recipe isn’t the only reason to read “Sweetie Pie’s Cookbook.” Another would be the memories told in the personable style of the reality-show star. (The new season of “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s” begins Nov. 21 on OWN.)
Even her dedication is delightful: “For my mom and pop, who were excellent cooks with amazing palates. For my sisters and brothers, who ate up every damn thing our parents prepared. Wish we were all still together.”
The Mississippi native, 75, learned to cook from her parents. No recipes were written down, but she had long ago reconstructed some for her restaurant workers and has reduced the amounts and slimmed down other recipes for the cookbook.
When her father, a railroad porter, got home, he’d sometimes cook liver and onions, or his special yellow cake with hot vanilla cream sauce. Her mother, Montgomery writes, “was a miracle worker, somehow stretching my dad’s paycheck six ways to Sunday.”
Montgomery also writes, of course, about her years as a backup singer to Ike and Tina Turner and later Stevie Wonder, Patti LaBelle, James Brown, Dr. John and others. While on the road with the Turners, she tired of eating sandwiches on the bus. So after collecting a couple of small appliances, Montgomery would make spaghetti and fried chicken in motels, serving the whole crew. “Trust me, if you can turn out soul food for 20 people on a hotplate and an electric skillet, then you know you’re good,” she writes.