Raised in Appalachia, native daughter Ashleigh Shanti, a queer Black woman and acclaimed chef, knows Southern Black cooking means more than we’ve come to believe. While hot buttered cast-iron-pan cornbread and crunchy, juicy, lard-fried chicken have their roles to play, they are far from the entire story.

The key to understanding how Black influence has defined foodways and cultures in the South is to explore its microregions, each with its own distinct flora and fauna, dialects, traditions, and dishes. In Our South, Ashleigh takes you through the five regions closest to her heart, beginning with a glimpse of mountain life in the Backcountry through recipes like Fish Camp Hush Puppies and quail spiked with black pepper. A swing over to the coastal Lowcountry fills your plate with smoky grilled oysters and benne seed–topped crab toasts. Seasonal produce shines in the Midlands, where bountiful stone fruits enrich dishes from shortcakes to salads. Lowlands nods to the diversity of food cultures that meet in the region, where Ashleigh grew up eating noodle dishes like Virginia yock alongside Southern classics like Brunswick stew. The book culminates in Homeland, with foods that share what it’s like to cook—and live—as a Black Southern chef now.

Long before competing on Top Chef and earning a coveted James Beard Award Rising Star Chef nomination for her cooking at Asheville, North Carolina’s Benne on Eagle, Ashleigh shelled boiled peanuts and coveted the jars of pickles in her great-aunt Hattie Mae’s larder. In high school, she pored over food and travel magazines and marveled at how her mother never failed to put a hot meal on the table, whether instant grits or slowly cooked celebration dishes. After spending a gap year in Nairobi and graduating from culinary school, Ashleigh entered the restaurant world, bartending, catering, teaching, and staging. She rekindled her connection to the cuisine of her roots before opening her own restaurant, Good Hot Fish, named for a phrase her ancestors would shout to draw in customers.

Ashleigh’s culinary journey culminates in Our South, where each dish speaks deeply to its origins, revealing the true story of Black food in the region and the many pleasures of the South you can savor at home, wherever that may be.

BIO

Ashleigh Shanti has been working in restaurants since she was a teenager. She graduated from culinary school at Baltimore International College in 2013 and went on to stage at Minibar in Washington, D.C., and act as culinary assistant for Vivian Howard before becoming chef de cuisine at John Fleer’s Benne on Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina. Today, she is the chef-owner of Good Hot Fish in the same city. She was named an Eater Young Gun in 2019 and was a finalist for the James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year award in 2020. She also competed in season 19 of Bravo’s Top Chef. Raised from Virginia Beach, Virginia, she now lives in Asheville with her wife, Meaghan, and their dog, Roux.

REVIEWS

“A treasure… lovingly written, beautifully photographed… The hard work that went into this volume is evident, making it a soon-to-be-classic addition to collections that explore American cuisine from a Black viewpoint.” -- Library Journal, STARRED Review

“A powerhouse debut [that] amplifies the complexities of Black food with head-turning dishes.” -- Garden and Gun

"What a beautiful Black story told through food. What I love most about Our South is that I see and hear parts of my story in Ashleigh’s. As we continue to remember, explore, discuss, and celebrate Black food, many of the recipes from this book will be at the table." -- Mashama Bailey, James Beard Award-winning chef and author of Black, White, and The Grey

"Ashleigh Shanti stakes a bold claim in the title and follows through deliciously. Our South is an opinionated look at Southern food through lens of the Black experience. Shanti is a chef on a mission, and I have no doubt that by the time you have perused the pages, delighted in the tales told, cooked the recipes, and enjoyed the tasty dishes, she will have convinced you that her South—our South—is a place to be acknowledged and savored." -- Dr. Jessica B. Harris, culinary historian, professor, lecturer, and author of High on the Hog

[H]  Union Square & Co.  /  October 15, 2024

1.36" H x 10.16" L x 8.27" W (3.21 lbs) 320 pages