"For now, staying light on his feet is priority for busy Geechee chef."
BJ has his hand in many pots. "His life as head of Chef Benjamin (BJ) Dennis Personal Chef and Catering keeps him on the road quite a bit, and his recent consulting gig with Republic Garden and Lounge on King Street keeps him busy revamping the menu and retraining the staff. Dennis is a classically trained chef and credits local chefs Jeremiah Bacon of the Macintosh and Frank McMahon of Hank’s Seafood with influencing his style, but he gives just as much credit to 'guys who look like me,' such as Nigel Drayton of Nigel’s Good Food in North Charleston, the late 'Miss Barbara' Ellington, who ran breakfast and lunch at Hyman’s Seafood, and Edmond Floyd, who worked at Anson."

It's a great story. Read it here.

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What We're Reading

“Eating from the Ground Up”

Out just in time for the vegetables appearing at our farmers markets, Alana Chernila’s cookbook focuses on creatively using every root and leaf. While some of the recipes may be familiar concepts – think stuffed tomatoes – hers are packed with millet, basil, and parsley. Fried rice stars salmon, fennel, and Swiss chard stems. Roasted asparagus are sauced with a combo of butter, garlic, nutritional yeast, and tamari. Stone fruit, raw corn kernels, scallions, basil, and jalapeño make a cool salad for hot weather. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC.

"Soul: A Chef's Culinary Evolution in 150 Recipes"

“This book is my homage to the cuisine of my family,” Chef Todd Richards writes in his autobiographical collection of essays and recipes. “These are the ingredients of my people. This is my sermon about my Soul food.”

Bringing accolades for his stints at Atlanta’s Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons, James Beard nominations, and, of course, his prowess at Southern cooking, Richards seasons the pot with a powerful bouquet of flavors as he pays his heritage forward. Collards cooked with ham hocks are accented with piquant pickled collard stems. Blueberries are found in fried pies; strawberries are plated with champagne aspic, whipped cream, and honey. Grilled peaches pair with radishes on toast spread with pimiento cheese. Sweet potatoes are layered with cauliflower and crab in a lush gratin.

"Soul food," Richards tells us, "is the original cuisine of the South, born from an involuntary collision of cultures."
Published by Southern Living. $35.