It’s easy to see why chef Todd Richards loves coming to Alabama. Besides having a passion for eating at Frank Stitt’s restaurants and indulging in Dolester Miles’ cakes, the Atlanta-based chef has pals here.
A journey to Birmingham way a hazard to visit his pal Adam Evans, who gained a countrywide recognition for seafood during his tenure on the Atlanta eating place The Optimist before coming back to his home nation to open Automatic Seafood and Oyster House.
The two-time James Beard-nominated chef and owner of Richards’ Southern Fried is likewise looking forward to journeying to Mobile to go to another tremendous pal: Chef Duane Nutter, the government chef and co-proprietor of Southern National. The two chefs have a history. They got here up in the kitchen together, reducing their enamel inside the Atlanta culinary scene. Eventually, the pair worked together to open One Flew South, the primary satisfactory eating place in Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International airport.
One Flew South opened in 2008. Now, Richards is the culinary director of Jackmont Hospitality, a restaurant control company that focuses on airport hospitality. In addition to One Flew South, which Food Network named one of the first-class airport eating places in the U.S., the organization also oversees Chicken + Beer, the Atlanta airport restaurant owned by using rapper and actor Chris “Ludacris” Bridges. Richards and Jackmont plan to open a barbecue restaurant in Atlanta later this year.
The restaurant, consistent with Eater Atlanta, will include Southern and Chicago-style barbecue (Richards is a Chicago local) in addition to dishes from his 2018 cookbook, “Soul: A Chef’s Culinary Evolution in one hundred fifty Recipes.”
In “Soul,” Richards shares his culinary journey from Chicago to Atlanta through the lens of soul meals– narrating how the meals of his childhood inspired his craft. In December, the New York Times’ Grub Street listed “Soul” on its compilation of 2018’s pleasant cookbooks.
Richards turned into one of some of the black cook’s ultimate yr who launched cookbooks analyzing the origins of soul meals. “Between Harlem and Heaven” explored the have an effect on the African diaspora had on international delicacies. Carla Hall’s “Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration” defined how to party ingredients — consisting of fried hen, macaroni and cheese, and caramel cake — eclipsed the grain and vegetable- primarily based everyday food of soul food’s roots.
With “Soul,” Richards’ pays homage to standard soul meals recipes by way of embracing the staples of those dishes with new creativity. The chapters of “Soul” are organized through aspect — which includes collards, berries and stone fruit. After a definition and records of each element, Richards gives his recipes, weaving his homage to bedrock dishes together with his personal interpretations. In the bankruptcy devoted to collards, the first recipe is collard greens with smoked ham hocks and picked collard green stems. Later inside the bankruptcy, the development of the recipe to include Richards’ present-day taste combos, such as collard green ramen and oysters poached in collard inexperienced pesto.
“Today, I recognize a certain fact: Food is a faith of its own,” writes Richards in the creation of “Soul.” “Different regions have produced brilliant preachers of delicacies.”
The chef describes himself as a preacher of soul meals. If soul food is the Bible and Richards is the preacher, then “Soul” is the gospel. And Richards has multiple ways to spread that gospel. In addition to being a board member of Wholesome Wave Georgia, a company committed to healthful meals get entry to, Richards is likewise a member of the Southern Foodways Alliance and a founding council member of the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival.
It’s been a bit over 12 months due to the fact Richards launched “Soul.” AL.Com caught up with the Atlanta chef and restaurateur thru email to invite 5 short questions about demanding the real cost of soul meals, empowering black cooks, and his ideal playlist for summer time outside night meal.
