Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Today's interview is about a cookbook,

when Southern Woman Cook by Tony Tipton Martin and Morgan Bowling. It's not just recipes, though.

It's also essays and poetry and history about Southern food. And I noticed something when listening to

this interview between the two authors and here and now's Robin Young. And it's that Tipton Martin and Bowling are very careful about crediting

people when possible. They're very aware that recipes and food traditions don't just come

out of nowhere someone has to make them. Very often, it's women, and very often their

contributions are lost to the

sands of time. This is taped just before Thanksgiving, but it's pretty useful for any holiday

cooking you've got coming up. So come for the historical analysis of cooking, but stay for the

bit about Forever's Law. That interview's up after this.

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If you cook or eat or are interested in history, geography, sociology, literature, anthropology, have we got a book for you? When Southern Women Cook is packed with America's Test Kitchen approved recipes, so yes, it's a cookbook,

but it's also an elegant and powerful homage to the American South and Southern women, black, white,

indigenous, immigrant. It's about the food that empowered them to become activists and leaders shaping the region's history.

When Southern Women Cook is the work of two women here in the studio, with lifelong ties to southern food.

Cook's country editor-in-chief Tony Tipton Martin, author of several books celebrating African-American cookbook history, a three-time James Beard

Book Award winner. Hi, Tony. Hi. And we're also welcoming into our studio, Morgan Bowling,

born and raised in North Carolina. She's executive editor of creative content for Cook's Country,

as well as a chef and food historian. Morgan, welcome to you as well. Thank you for having me for talking about this book with us. Yeah, and you both illustrate, you know, one of the things that really jumped out at me about the book, you, Morgan, or White. Tony is an African-American woman. That's only a part of the blend. So many ingredients in this stew. And Tony, I want to start with you because I loved how, in your forward, it seemed to

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