The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A culinary legacy
Chef Todd Richards celebrates soul food with his autobiographical cookbook
Chef Todd Richards had two goals for his first cookbook, a photo-filled, autobiographical, 150-recipe tome called “Soul.” The first was to share the culinary legacy of his own family. “People ask why I’m a chef,” he says, “and it’s really because of my family and how we ate together.” The second was a little more complicated. Richards hoped to break through the stereotypes that often surround black chefs and provide a better understanding of what he calls “the economics of soul food restaurants.” Here’s the hard truth: While diners will gladly pay $30 or $40 a dish at highend restaurants, they often expect to eat cheap when it comes to the culinary traditions of African-Americans and so-called developing nations. “Soul food should be as elevated as French cuisine or Japanese cuisine, just based off of technique alone,” Richards says. “Can you imagine how much knowledge and sophistication you need to make a plate of chitlins taste good?” With his book, he hopes to change minds. “Soul” notes that while the history of African-American food is complicated, “born from an involuntary collision of cultures,” it also deserves honor. “You have to tell the story and personalize the story, too,” Richards says. “And you have to realize it’s not just one person’s story — it’s lot a of black chefs’ stories — but they’re all interpreted differently because soul food is not just one thing.” Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, Richards’ family life focused on eating well. His parents and grandparents cooked traditional soul with great skill, but never limited themselves. They experimented with recipes from cooking shows, relied heavily on seasonal produce, and merged traditions based on whatever they had on hand: yakamein with collard greens, say, or fried catfish with smoked oysters. “My dad was a person of frugality, so if we had collard greens left over, they’d still go on the with sometable thing we picked up from a Chinese food place,” he says. In the the decades since, self-taught chef ’s career has taken him from Kroger’s meat counter to five-star hotel kitchens. He’s scooped up multiple James Beard nominations and a stint on “Iron Chef,” and co-founded several Atlanta restaurants, including One Flew South and The Pig and the Pearl. In 2016, he opened Richards’ Southern Fried, a popular chicken and soul food stall at Krog Street Market. Last year, he started a pop-up dinner series called Analog with chef Guy Wong, where the two blend their respective culinary traditions with wine and cocktail pairings from Krista and Jerry Slater. Soul emerged in the moments between. Richards would come home from work and spend late nights writing each page, formulating recipes as he went. Sectioned by ingredient, the book spans history and culture, delving into the lesser-known intersections between foodways. You’ll find recipes for hot water cornbread and recipes for sea urchin, a common ingredient on the West African coast. Peppered throughout are short, personal moments from Richards’ own life — the racism he experienced as a child while visiting family in Arkansas; the way his father started cooking healthier after his brother died. As he awaited for the book’s May 22 release, Richards reflected on the new renaissance in food. Young chefs of color are carving out space to reinvent their own culinary traditions, and the powers that be are finally taking notice. “When I look at the James Beard list this year, I see more diversity than I’ve ever seen before, and it’s happening in the South,” Richards says. “That, to me, is progress.” This progress sustains the chef at the end of each long day and keeps him moving forward, sharing his stories and recipes, speaking out about diversity in the industry. “For those who say, ‘Why do you talk about it so much?’ — it’s because I have to be responsible,” he says. “I have a whole group of people coming behind me. If I don’t beat the drum for them, then what is my legacy going to be made of?”