Graza

Q: How would you describe yourself?

G: AfroCarolinian––Okra lover and luxuriator, grandma's baby, caretaker, and overall pretty expansive human.

Q: Finish this sentence, cooking for me is...

G: A call to slow down, pull some intention and play into my day while caring for myself and others. 

Q: What is your go-to dish to bring together a dinner party or WOW the guests?

G: It's my mussels in collard potliquor, I use miso, a dash of fish sauce and caramelized onion to add depth to my broth and finish it with bonito flakes. I shared this recipe last winter on my Substack as a way to spread the potliquor (potlikker) gospel and encourage us to eat our new years collards for prosperity.

Q: Something we can always find in your pantry?

G: Cornmeal, from fine to coarse. North Carolina has some really special cornmeal and flour from piedmont to the Appalachian Mountains in the western part of the state. 

Q: A dish or restaurant you can't stop thinking about?

G: The pinto beans at Friday Saturday Sunday in Philly. Since I had them almost a year ago, I think about them every time I make beans. It's something about the acid and their buttery texture. 

Q: Any ingredients you are currently obsessed with? 

G: Winstead Methodist Church in North Carolina does these water blanched peanuts that I keep stocked in my pantry. Just google them. They are such a beautiful ingredient to play with, eat straight or braise in stews or mixed in with beans. Any fermented or cured fish product, fish sauce, dried or smoked herring, bottarga, bonito, anything fishy for deep flavor. 

Q: How do you define community? Where do you seek communities and how do you build them?

G: Community is vital! Having your people who see you, love you, support you and that you get to reciprocate that for is a gift. Reciprocity is a good way to build with others, how you can sow into the lives of others? As a queer, southern, Black woman I belong to many communities and hold chosen family as close as blood. 

Q: Who do you turn to, watch, or follow for food inspiration?

G: So many people influence and inspire my style of cooking. I tend to look back for gems, memory is a toll we can use to explore nostalgia and evoke connection. The Darden sisters, Vertamae Grovensnor, Edna Lewis, B. Smith, my granmother Artis––they understood how to use what you have to create something special. I also like to center rural land tradition and yard medicine in my cooking practice. 

Q: What is a culinary fact or secret you wish more people knew?

G:  You have everything you need (most times), play and improvisation are part of being a great cook and not just someone who cooks to eat. 

Q: Do you have any cooking rituals? (playlists, specific tools/aprons, etc?)

G: Cooking is ritual. Most times when I pull out a cured cast iron to prepare a meal, I'm using tools that were passed down to me from my mother, her mother and many mothers and fathers before them. Even the most simple meals can reflect the ease and understanding I witnessed expressed in the kitchen. 

Q: What are you all-around life mottos, mantras, or philosophies?

G: I believe in using what you have. I'm anchored by the Sankofa principle; Go back and get it. Tricia Hersey's ethos "Rest is Resistance," and that we deserve rest not as a means to recharge for more productivity but because it is vital to our well being and healing. It's not actually a luxury, we all need and deserve rest. I consider myself a master luxuriator. 

Q: What's on the horizon for you?

G: I am restoring my grandfather's mechanic shop and turning it into a space for us to cultivate intergenerational art and craft, host my supper club, teaching kitchen and a multidisciplinary artist's residency. You can sign up for my newsletter to get information on how you can engage and support.