with Virginia Willis, Nathalie Dupree, & Belinda Smith-Sullivan

Chef-authors Virginia Willis, Nathalie Dupree, and Belinda Smith-Sullivan will discuss the iconic past and emerging future of Southern cuisine.

Georgia-born, French-trained chef Virginia Willis has made chocolate chip cookies with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, foraged for berries in the Alaskan wilderness, harvested capers in the shadow of a smoldering volcano in Sicily, and hunted for truffles in France. She is talent and chef-instructor for the digital streaming platform Food Network Kitchen; her segments feature authentic and innovative Southern cooking. She was the celebrity chef at the Mansion at Churchill Downs for the 143rd running of the Kentucky Derby. Virginia has spoken at SXSW, cooked for the James Beard Foundation, and beguiled celebrities such as Jane Fonda, Morgan Freeman, and Bill Clinton with her cooking — but it all started in her grandmother’s country kitchen.

South Carolinian Nathalie Dupree is a best-selling author with 13 hardback and two softback cookbooks and more than 300 television shows for The Food Network, PBS, and The Learning Channel. She has been prominently featured in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Bon Appétit, and Southern Living. Her bestselling book, New Southern Cooking, started an entire culinary movement. She has won James Beard Awards for Southern Memories and Comfortable Entertaining as well as her most recent book, Nathalie Dupree’s Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking. The Founding Chairman of the Charleston Food and Wine Festival, she also was a founder of Southern Foodways, the Atlanta and Charleston Chapters of Les Dames d’Escoffier, the American Institute of Wine and Food and the International Association of Culinary Professionals, of which she was two time President. She was awarded the prestigious “Grande Dame” of Les Dames d’Escoffier, an international organization of top women in the culinary field, as well as 2013 Woman of the Year by a prestigious organization of French Chefs in America. She writes for the Charleston Post and Courier and does short videos for them, as well as occasionally for Charleston Magazine and The Local Palate. Her husband, Jack Bass, is author of nine books on the American South.

Belinda Smith-Sullivan is a chef, author, food writer, spice blends entrepreneur, and a commercially-rated pilot. She graduated from Johnson & Wales University with a degree in Culinary Arts. She has lived in France, Kenya, and South Africa and has traveled extensively throughout the world experiencing the foods and flavors of multiple cultures. Several of Chef Belinda’s articles have been featured in regional magazines throughout the southeast. She is the monthly food contributor to South Carolina Living Magazine. She is the author of “The Flying Foodie Blog” and former co-host of Cooking with Madjon & Chef Belinda, a weekly television cooking show based in Aiken, South Carolina. She also is featured on South Carolina Living’s website with monthly how-to videos. Smith-Sullivan is an active member of the Southern Foodways Alliance, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the American Culinary Federation, and Les Dames d’Escoffier. She lives in Trenton, South Carolina, in the heart of South Carolina’s peach country. Chef Belinda’s first cookbook, Just Peachy, is available now, and her next book, Let’s Brunch, is available September 8th.

Ligaya Figueras joined the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as its food and dining editor in 2015. The Midwest transplant digs biscuits, collards and peanuts — roasted, please. She also writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Atlanta Restaurants blog.

Books available through local, indie bookseller

Secret of Southern Table: A Food Lover's Tour of the Global South by Virginia Willis

Grandes Dames of Southern Cooking