Cheesy casseroles, fruit-studded muffins, fluffy biscuits, and other wake-up worthy meals
Chef John Currence is a believer in the power of the morning meal. At his Big Bad Breakfast restaurants in Oxford, Mississippi, and Birmingham, Alabama, the New Orleans native awakens diners with plates of eggs with Andouille sausage and grits, pain perdu, and a behemoth known far and wide as the …
Dinner isn’t the only meal that’s worthy of a doorstep drop. “Breakfast is often the forgotten meal for consoling,” says Karl Worley, the chef and owner of Biscuit Love in Nashville. Starting the day with a great dish, he says, sets the mood for everything that comes next. Last year, to support …
“These yogurt-based biscuits border on cake because they’ve got a little more sugar than most and, more notably, because they’ve got berries stirred into the dough. When baked, the berries’ sweetness and flavor intensify. I like to serve these at breakfast with butter and jam, but they can also …
“I think of these sweet treats as Italian doughnuts,” writes Susan Gravely in her new cookbook, Italy on a Plate, which chronicles her connections to both Italy and the American South through food and hospitality. “They can be served as dessert, and they’re equally good with your morning …
Terry Thompson-Anderson knows Texas. The author and chef has lived in Houston, Austin, and Fredericksburg, and has roamed the entire Lone Star State researching her ten cookbooks, including 2014’s James Beard Award–nominated Texas on the Table. While writing it, she found herself especially drawn to …
Ford Fry doesn’t consider himself a big breakfast eater—but that doesn’t mean his two sons aren’t. “For me, breakfast was my time to spend with them and serve something special,” says the chef and restaurateur, who owns beloved spots in Atlanta and beyond, including the Optimist, Marcel, Beetlecat, …
From the outside looking in, it might seem as though every Southerner is simply born with a certain set of kitchen skills, trained since childhood in the ways of pimento cheese and fluffy, buttery biscuits. Suzanne Vizethann, the chef behind Atlanta’s Buttermilk Kitchen, is here to tell you that’s …
The thick strips of bacon hawked by the likes of producers such as Allan Benton in Madisonville, Tennessee (Benton’s Hickory Smoked Country Bacon) and Sam Edwards in Surry, Virginia (Edwards Hickory-Smoked Sliced Bacon) beat their grocery-store equivalents handily. Their only real competition is …
Robert St. John is a big player on the Hattiesburg, Mississippi, restaurant scene, and when he opened the Midtowner in 2017, he knew he wanted to serve a big biscuit. So while he chased the flavor profile of his grandmother’s acidic buttermilk recipe (not that there existed an actual recipe), he …
While I’m more often stuffing my buttermilk babes with blueberries or chocolate chunks, I was inspired by my family to try this savory take. Years ago, when I was searching for tried-and-true family recipes, my Grandma Jeanne shared a recipe for tomato jam with me. I probably wrinkled my nose at …
When Adrienne Cheatham was cooking at Le Bernardin in New York City, she prepared this breakfast-inspired tart for the staff as their “family meal”—and they couldn’t get enough of it. “I like to precook the puff pastry a little bit just to really start to separate those layers and get that lift,” …
Texas has a long-standing tradition of European baked goods, which arrived with an influx of German and Czech immigrants in the mid-1800s. These nut-studded rolls reach next-level deliciousness with a glaze of sugar, whipping cream, and praline liqueur. “Although it is highly unlikely that they had …
Whether you’re hosting New Year’s Day brunch or just cooking for one, borrow from the recovery brunch playbook of chef Alex Harrell of New Orleans’s Commons Club with this comforting fried egg sandwich dressed up with chile aioli. Paired with a mimosa, it’s the perfect kickstart to the new year or …
In his charming new cookbook, Mississippi Mornings: Deep South Breakfasts, Brunches, and Musings, chef Robert St. John shares some strong opinions about pancakes: “If I were asked to rank waffles, pancakes, and French toast, I will always rank pancakes first, French toast second, and waffles third. …
Cooking mistakes can be like little kitchen miracles, which is how Erika Council came to develop her recipe for sweet potato pancakes. A software engineer by day and a food blogger by night, Council started cooking Sunday suppers for friends after she moved to Atlanta in 2005. The guest list kept …
Phila Hach was a well-known culinary pioneer. In her younger days, the Nashville-born chef served as an American Airlines flight attendant and collected over three thousand recipes from international chefs. She hosted the first televised cooking show in the South. Hach authored seventeen cookbooks, …
“Once a year, mainly because that’s as often as you should probably eat it, my family has a grits casserole on Christmas morning,” says Kevin Johnson, chef of the Grocery in Charleston, South Carolina. His mom received the recipe from a friend years ago, and now it’s a holiday staple for the family. …
