In many Gullah Geechee families, recipes are not written down, and it’s not always easy to learn your grandmother’s best dishes. “Children weren’t really allowed in a Gullah kitchen,” says Kardea Brown, who grew up in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. So in high school, she started writing down recipes from her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother.
After college, she embarked on a career as a social worker, but the kitchen kept calling, her Food Network show now in its seventh season. In October, she’ll release her first cookbook,. Although many of the recipes are twists on Lowcountry Gullah classics, like chicken perloo and crab rice, she tucks in a few sleepers. One is salted Georgia peanut pie, a textural cousin to pecan pie that Brown secured from her mother, Patricia, who got it from a coworker. “I have my own version of a pecan pie that I love, but I prefer the peanut pie,” Brown says.
