Boker Carol - Cooking in the South with Johnnie Gabriel

2008 Johnnie Gabriel

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Edited by Carol Boker

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gabriel, Johnnie, 1945
Cooking in the South with Johnnie Gabriel / edited by Carol Boker ; photographs by Erik Boker.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4016-0405-9
1. Cookery, AmericanSouthern style. 2. Gabriel's Desserts (Restaurant) I. Boker, Carol. II. Title.
TX715.2.S68G33 2008
641.5975dc22

2008007092

Printed in the United States of America

08 09 10 11 12 13 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I cant tell yall how happy I am to be writing this. Nothing makes me prouder than when someone near and dear to me succeeds at what they love to do. My cousin Johnnie has succeeded in so many ways already that when I found out she was publishing her very own cookbook, I was just beaming with pride. Now, for all yall out there who arent familiar with my family tree, heres the history.

Johnnie is actually my first cousin once removed. Dont ask me to explain that. She is my mamas first cousin, but shes nearer to me in age. Since I grew up in Albany, Georgia, and Johnnie grew up in Macon, Georgia, we didnt get to see each other that often. Of course, we saw each other at family reunions, and holiday gatherings.

And every so often, usually in the summer, she and her family would come to Riverbend and spend time with my family. Wed swim and roller skate and just do what kids do in the summertime. We had a ball together. Now, she may not want me to tell this, but my favorite story of Johnnie and me will always be the leg-shaving story.

When I was ten, maybe eleven years old, I went to spend the week with Johnnie and her family in Macon. One night, she decided she was gonna teach me how to shave my legs. Now, a bar of soap, shaving cream, water, these are key ingredients to learn to shave. Johnnie didnt teach me with any of these key ingredients. Piled in the middle of the bed one night after everyone had gone to sleep, Johnnie handed me a single, straight-edged razor. Pulling the razor straight up my leg, I shaved both my legs for the first time. All the while, Johnnie assures me that was how you shave your legs. The next day, I woke-up and saw my legs. It looked like I had measles! Oh, my legs were so ugly, and they hurt, and I never wanted to shave my legs again! However, yall will be happy to know that I did learn how to shave my legs correctly. My husband, Michael, may argue that I dont shave my legs as often as I should, but do I really need to now that Im married?

As with most big families, Johnnie and I lost contact with each other over the years. I kept up with what she was doing, and she kept up with me, but it wasnt until I was hard at work on my third cookbook, Just Desserts , that I re-established contact. Knowing what a wonderful baker Johnnie is, it was only fitting that I ask her to contribute a recipe to the cookbook. Well, she was so gracious, she sent me not one, but several recipes for the cookbook. I published all of them. But, my favorite dessert has got to be her red velvet cake! Its just heaven on earth! Now, I dont say this about many recipes, but Johnnies red velvet cake is better than mine! Johnnie made red velvet cupcakes for my brother Bubbas wedding in 2007, as well as an adorable overall cake for my darling grandson Jack. So, how good a baker is Johnnie? Well, aside from owning the successful Gabriels Bakery in Marietta, Georgia, my darling husband Michael has a wish to be locked overnight inside Johnnies bakery, with all of her deliciously sweet treats! I cant say I blame him for that!

Im so thrilled Johnnie has decided to share some of her wonderful recipes with yall. A talent like Johnnies should be shared, and with as many people as possible. I hope yall enjoy her cookbook, and her desserts, for many years to come.

Paula Deen

The old clich necessity is the mother of invention certainly fits the birth of Gabriels Desserts. My family and I cant really decide when my husband, Ed, and I began baking cakes at home to sell, but we think it was 1989 or 1990. My oldest daughter, Stephanie, was married and living in Germany with her career military husband at the time. Laura, my youngest daughter, was at the University of Georgia.

When a deep real estate recession began in 1989, I was determined to see to it that Laura would be able to finish college. Laura was working two jobs and going to school, but it became apparent that I had to increase my income.

I approached Mary Moon, Mariettas cake lady, to buy her recipes so I could bake a few cakes to pay Lauras apartment rent. Mary had been baking cakes for many years, every since her husband was diagnosed with a terminal illness. She was ready to retire and insisted that she give the recipes to me. (Just maybe, there was another saint who touched my life.)

Little did I know what a great baker Ed Gabriel was! He kept telling me that he always baked with his mom. Ed and I both worked fulltime, he with remodeling projects and I at a friends family business. With his more flexible schedule, he could be home earlier, so he began the baking. He could turn out some great pound and layer cakes. My job was to bake more and finish the cakes when I got home. Friends were delighted that they still had a source for Marys delicious cakes, so our home baking project began. Ed and I baked nearly every night of the week and all day on Saturday. Lauras rent was paid, and she eventually made the Deans List (once or twice) and graduateda blessed day for our family.

A couple of years into our home baking project, John Moore of Moore, Ingram, Johnson and Steele, a large law firm here in Marietta, asked us to bake pound cakes for their clients for Christmas. We baked from our home kitchen, close to 100 pound cakes that Christmas for John. Were still baking cakes as gifts for their clients, around 200 each year.

In January 1996, I announced to Ed that I was either quitting baking at night or quitting my day job and opening a bakeshop. I had no idea what I was in for. Ed and I had lost everything but our home in the recession, so we had to borrow money to open the doors.

In December 1996, we opened Gabriels Desserts on Whitlock Avenue with three employees. The shop sat perpendicular to the main street and had it not been for our reputation of the previous six years, community support, encouragement from friends, loyal employees, a seven-year note to Charter Bank, and the grace of God, I probably would have walked away and gone back to the corporate world. In that tiny space, we survived ten yearsincluding ten Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and eight wedding seasons. I realized we needed customers coming in daily, not just when they needed a dessert. Lunch would be a good time for that, so we added a deli in the space next door in 2004. We made soups, sandwiches, and fresh vegetables daily with twenty chairs for seating customers.