“She was a remarkable woman! Everybody gravitated toward her, no matter who they were. And I’m just proud to call her mom!” That’s how Lavern Meggett describes her late mother, Emily Meggett of Edisto Island, South Carolina.
The Gullah Geechee cook became famous worldwide when she published her first and only book, “Gullah Geechee Home Cooking: Recipes from the Matriarch of Edisto Island,” in 2022 at the unbelievable age of 89. She was inspired to do it by her good friend, Becky Smith, whose family she cooked for whenever they vacationed on the island for over 20 years.
“Becky told her, ‘Emi, you need to write a cookbook,’” remembers Meggett, one of Emily’s ten children. “My mom said, ‘No, I’m not writing a cookbook. Everything I need for cooking is in my head, my heart and my hands.’ So Becky started writing down dishes my mom was cooking and taking photos of them.”
Twenty years later, they had 80 percent of the book done when another Gullah Geechee cook, Chef BJ Dennis of Charleston, called. “BJ is like a son to my mom; he’s family,” notes Lavern, who lives in a suburb of Columbia, South Carolina. “So when his [publisher] called to ask if his book was ready to be published, he said, ‘not yet’ and suggested the publisher take mom’s book instead. How noble of BJ to put my mom’s book ahead of his,” the legendary cook’s daughter emotes.
Becoming the Matriarch
Though the book made Emily Meggett famous worldwide, she was already renowned on the Gullah Geechee sea island of Edisto, where she was born and lived her entire life. “My mom was born in 1932 and was raised by her maternal grandmother,” notes Meggett.
“Life wasn’t easy for them. They had to farm and everything they ate they grew, like okra, tomatoes and corn,” she continues. “And they would slaughter hogs and hang the meat in the smokehouse. But my mom didn’t like working in the field. So my grandmother told her that if she wasn’t going to work in the field, she would have to cook and prepare breakfast and lunch for the family members in the field.”
That’s how Emily learned to cook as a preteen. “And back then, the only spices they had were salt and pepper. They didn’t have any of those fancy spices that we have now,” notes Meggett. “My mother said that there was no such thing as ‘Gullah Geechee cuisine’ the way they call it now; it was just the way that Gullah Geechee people cooked. And even with only salt and pepper, the food always had a lot of flavor,” Meggett says with pride.
By Kalin Thomas
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Cuisine Noir Magazine is the country’s first Black food publication, launched in 2009 and dedicated to connecting the African diaspora through food, drink and travel. To read the rest of this article and more, visit www.cuisinenoirmag.com.
