Bon Appétit, Y’all
A marriage of Southern traditions with a French twist

Baking biscuits with Grandma Meme since the age of 4, Virginia Willis says her love of food has steered her into a new role of publisher, as she combines her mastery of French techniques with her Southern roots in Bon Appétit, Y’all.

Virginia has three generations of recipes and culinary experience under her apron and is a graduate of L’Academie de Cuisine and Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne. She has produced the popular Turner South’s Home Plate and Shirley Corriher’s Kitchen Secrets Revealed on DVD. Virginia was also the kitchen director for Martha Stewart Living. She has cooked for former President Bill Clinton, singer Aretha Franklin, the late chef and author Julia Child, and worked with her favorite chef, Nathalie Dupree.

“Natalie took me out of my mother’s kitchen and exposed me to things that I hadn’t seen before,” she says.

As executive producer for Epicurious on The Discovery Channel, Virginia shares her experience of growing up in the kitchen, which resulted in great recipes. “Southerners are great storytellers, and I wanted to include stories from cooking with my grandmother and mother. I have been teaching for a long time and I had a story to tell.”

Before living and working in France, Virginia enjoyed old-fashioned meals of hog jowls and bacon-fried fatback. “Growing up, I lived in Louisiana, and my mother, who is also named Virginia, started cooking Creole and Cajun [dishes]. She collected all the local cookbooks and prepared gourmet lunches for me to take to school every day … so I grew up eating Southern foods.

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