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Featuring new recipes and photographs, this revised and updated edition of Virginia Willis’s best-selling culinary classic also features new variations and commentary on the original recipes plus options using healthier ingredients. More than two hundred heritage and new recipes seamlessly blend into a thoroughly modern Southern cookbook.
The daughter and granddaughter of consummate Southern cooks, Willis is also a classically trained French chef and an award-winning writer. These divergent influences come together splendidly in Bon Appétit, Y’all, a modern Southern chef’s passionate and evolving homage to her culinary roots.
Espousing a simple-is-best philosophy, Willis uses good ingredients, concentrates on sound French technique, and lets the food shine in a style she calls “refined Southern cuisine.” Approachable recipes are arranged by chapter into starters and nibbles; salads and slaws; eggs and dairy; main dishes with fowl, fish, and other meats; sides; biscuits and breads; soups and stews; desserts; and sauces and preserves.
Collected here are stylishly updated Southern and French classics (New Southern Chicken and Herb Dumplings, Boeuf Bourguignonne, Fried Catfish Fingers with Country Rémoulade) and traditional favorites (Meme’s Biscuits, Mama’s Apple Pie, Okra and Tomatoes), and it wouldn’t be Southern cooking without vegetables (Cauliflower and Broccoli Parmesan, Green Beans Provençal, and Smoky Collard Greens). More than one hundred photographs bring to life both Virginia’s food and the bounty of her native Georgia.
You’ll also find well-written stories, a wealth of tips and techniques from a skilled and innovative teacher, and the wisdom of a renowned authority in American regional cuisine, steeped to her core in the food, culinary knowledge, and hospitality of the South.
Bon Appétit, Y’all is Virginia Willis’s way of saying, “Welcome to my Southern kitchen. Pull up a chair.” Once you have tasted her food, you’ll want to stay a good long while.
About the Author
Chef Virginia Willis is a James Beard award-winning cookbook author, Southern chef, TV and video personality, content creator, motivational speaker, and social media influencer.
Georgia-born French-trained chef Virginia Willis has foraged for berries in the Alaskan wilderness, harvested capers in the shadow of a smoldering volcano in Sicily, and executed the food styling for a Super Bowl commercial seen by over 160 million people.
Virginia lost 65 pounds and has kept it off for over 3 years. Her health journey has been documented in Eating Well, as a cover story for Woman’s World, Allrecipes, AARP, as well as the Rachel Ray Show. She has embraced her new outlook on life and has become a cheerleader for those wanting to make their life changes, “If a French-trained Southern chef can do it, you can, too!”
As a result of her health journey, she founded Good and Good for You, a lifestyle brand that shares health and wellness strategies through digital channels, print media, and public speaking. Her column “Good and Good for You” featuring reliable, healthy, and delicious recipes runs bi-weekly in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In addition, she offers a weekly newsletter “Good and Good for You Living” featuring healthy recipes, best-life living tips, self-care techniques, and ideas and inspiration. It’s the science-backed tools, encouragement, and support to empower folks to live a better life.
Her cookbooks include the revised and updated Bon Appétit, Y’all (UGA Press October 2024); Fresh Start; Secrets of the Southern Table, Lighten Up, Y’all, Basic to Brilliant, Y’all, Okra, and Grits.
She is the former TV kitchen director for Martha Stewart, Bobby Flay, and Nathalie Dupree; has worked in Michelin-starred restaurants; and traveled the world producing food stories – from making cheese in California to escargot farming in France. She has appeared on Alex vs America, The Rachel Ray Show, Food Network’s Chopped, CBS This Morning, Fox Family and Friends, Martha Stewart Living, and as a judge on Throwdown with Bobby Flay.
Virginia has also been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, People
Magazine, Eater, and Food52. She has contributed to Eating Well, Garden & Gun, Bon Appétit, and more. The Chicago Tribune praised her as one of “Seven Food Writers You Need to Know.”
Fans love her down-to-earth attitude and approachable spirit. Learn more about Virginia and Good and Good for You, her real-life approach to health and wellness for mind, body, and spirit at www.virginiawillis.com.
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