Nicole A. Taylor - Watermelon and Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations

A Cookbook for Juneteeth and Black Celebrations

Nicole A. Taylor

Watermelon and Red Birds

The Last O.G. Cookbook

The Up South Cookbook

Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2022 by Nicole A. Taylor

Photography by Beatriz da Costa

Food Styling by Victoria Granoff

Prop Styling by Gerri Williams

Poem by Omar Tate

Photograph by Alexa Rivera

Author Photograph by Adrian Franks

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition May 2022

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Design by George McCalman and Aliena Cameron of McCalmanCo

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

ISBN 978-1-9821-7621-1

ISBN 978-1-9821-7622-8 (ebook)

The road to get the recipes on the page, to get real stories and historical moments in this cookbook, has been a zigzagged line. I spent a lot of time away from my young son trying to make sense of a niche holiday that is now a national holiday. I tripled back on recipe testing to make sure I got things right. The weight of the world around me almost broke my spirit as I produced a photo shoot, managed budgets, and interacted with recipe developers and recipe testers; many times during this process, I gave in to self-doubt, and I lost the very joy I write about over and over. Then a red bird would appearmy ancestors would sing to me and strut around my backyard, reminding me to rest and then try again. Thank you, ancestors.

The secret sauce to everything I do is the encouragement and positivity of my brilliant partner in life, Adrian. He is the person I run to to make everything better. God has been good to me, and my prince, Garvey Crown, is my proof.

Many dear friends and colleagues have carried me through this journey, and completing this cookbook is their victory, too: Gabrielle Fulton Ponder, Reginald Dye, Stacey West, Lesley Ware, Jordan A. Colbert, Brooklyn Zoo Group Text, J. J. Johnson, Yahdon Israel, Adriana Velez, Charlotte Druckman, Shyretha and Mike Sheats, Scott Barton, Porsche Williams, Kristina Gill, Bryant Terry, Osayi Endolyn, Cynthia Greenlee, Von Diaz, Keia Mastrianni, Michael Twitty, Toni Tipton-Martin, Gabrielle E. W. Carter, Roz Bentley, Therese Nelson, Aki Baker, and Melissa Danielle. Plus my therapist, who for twenty months listened to the highs and lows of my professional and personal journey toward wholeness.

I reminded myself a hundred times that the magnetic energy of this cookbook began with Dawn Davis while she was a VP at Simon & Schuster and founder of 37 INK. Thank you to Dana Canedy and Emily Graff at S&S for keeping me on track. Plus, much gratitude to LaSharah Bunting for impactful comments.

I was fortunate enough to work with a crew of top-notch creatives in the business to bring this cookbook to life: Jenn de la Vega (patient recipe developer), Lolis E. Elie (manuscript doctor, editor, and eleventh-hour savior), Laura Arnold (recipe editor), Gerri Williams (prop stylist and a cool breeze on a spring day), Victoria Granoff (one of the best to do it!), Beatriz da Costa (the one photographer who gave me the old friend vibe), and Ali (right hand to George, Ill miss our weekly meetings). Thank you, Georgeyour artistry helped me push the boundaries of what a Black cookbook can be.

Believe it or not, I never thought this cookbook concept was viable, but my longtime literary agent, Sharon Bowers, kept circling back to this idea, and I finally gave in. I remember her saying, A Juneteenth cookbook will be your magnum opus. We shall see.

• with Apple Topping
• with Blue Cheese Dip & Lemon Pepper

• with Dukkah
• with Grilled Peppers
• with Green Garlic Chimichurri
• with Harissa
• with Citrus Verbena Salt
• with a BBQ Sauce Flight
  • Marigold
  • Purple Sweet Potato

• with Romesco

My friend Nicole Taylor has a curiosity that is infectious and tenacious, and matched only by her love for her people. For Us. This particular combination has been to the great benefit of the US food writing canon, to the professional food writing community, and to YOU.

The upside is clear: were getting a perspective that doesnt just place usit grounds us. Im always asking myself, Is this the right narrator for this story? With Nicole, the answer is always yes, because I know that those stories are embodied. We know who its for, and we know shes invested.

These recipes are illustrative of her gifts, moving us seamlessly from the historic to the contemporary, with ingredients and rhetoric together reinforcing a clear thesisI put on for my people. In this book, a story of place is articulated in the composition of each recipe, from the dishes to the spritzes. And as someone who considers her a beloved dining companion, it is a pleasure to read these very smart recipes, which are full of surprising and delightful ingredient combinations, organized in sections curated with the rigor of a MOMA exhibit.

In Watermelon & Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations , we are bound to celebration. We know well the hardship story, and are ready to write a different story. What youre readingthis bookis just that. I hope you will take the opportunity, as I am, to celebrate Nicole, as an author, a friend, and a north star on heart-centered work.

Stephen Satterfield, founder of Whetstone Media, host of High on the Hog

My people came to this country linked

Forming bonds where there were none

Previously, untwined forever bound

Now to one another, swaying down

Below in the belly of a foreign beast

Channeling through the big pond

My people were hot, sweaty, and sick

Lined, bound eternally by the worst

That God had given to man

Their blood spilled into the ocean

Swirling with the tides

While the moon glow glittered back

Dancing crimson along the ripples