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style of barbecue. We had people from Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and more open up restaurants all along Central Avenue back in the ’60s and ’70s. So we had barbecue from everywhere, and then the influence that we have with Mexican cooking and Asian cooking and all that. My chicken recipe, I make the seasoning based off the Mexican street vendors’ pollo asada. I took that and I made my twist off that and just smoke it.

QSo, if you’re a beginner, what kind of smoker should you buy?

AI tell people all the time, get yourself a nice offset smoker for $150 to $200. And learn your smoker. It’s almost like cooking in the oven once you know how to control it. Anybody can do it. It’s not just a man thing. I taught my daughter when she was 9 or 10.

QAlong with the smoker recipes there are some great sauces, sides and desserts in this book. You use ingredients like Liquid Smoke, Kitchen Bouquet, Lipton onion soup mix and ranch dip mix. That’s the way people really cook at home. Do you think it was important to be honest in this book?

AYeah. I like Liquid Smoke. We use it in sauces and stuff like that. When people put it on meat, that’s not what you’re supposed to do. But I don’t mind putting it in some other things, or something like Kitchen Bouquet in your gravy. Those things are must-haves in your kitchen cabinet.

QI really loved the cornbread recipe. It’s not sweet but it reads like you’re making a layer cake. You use enriched cornmeal, you whip the egg whites until stiff. You use butter and 2 teaspoons of oil. Tell me what the 2 teaspoons of oil do.

AIt’s mainly just for that moistness, and it’s a binder too. The top is always shiny, but when you cut into it and that inside is shiny — that’s what I was trying to get.

QQAThat is your grandma’s recipe, right?

that is hers.

It reminds me that Southern cookbook authors like Cheryl Day and Vivian Howard are finding a really good audience now. Marcus Samuelsson edited “The Rise” cookbook with some of these kinds of recipes. Do you think there’s a newfound respect for these heritage recipes from the South?

Food TV controls everything now, and there are a lot of shows realizing the heritage of this country is pretty incredible. Southern cooking is relaxing and especially now, after the pandemic, people have been inside, so they want to get together with family. They wanna barbecue. They wanna have Sunday dinners. And that’s what this book is — this is Sunday dinner all day long.