Gullah Geechee Catering Company owners to open restaurant on Hilton Head
Thomas Baker has always loved food.
So it worked out pretty well that everyone else in his family loved to cook and eat, too.
"I used to watch family members prepare meals," Baker said. "I started under the tutelage of my mom and dad."
Those early days of watching (and sampling) fostered a love for cooking, which eventually turned into a catering career based on Hilton Head Island.
Gullah Geechee Catering Company has been around for years, Baker said. Along with his immediate and extended family, who are native islanders, he prepares traditional Gullah cuisine at local festivals, events and reunions.
"I have compiled recipes from grandparents, great-grandparents," he said, adding that over the years, he had to "clean up" one or two of them. "You don't have to go overboard on fatty foods."
Baker, along with his second cousin Richard Williams, decided it was time to give the Gullah Geechee Catering Company an "operational base."
"It has been my love, my passion, my drive to have a place of business that represents the island -- and who we are," he said.
So began the process to open a restaurant with the same moniker as his catering company. The Gullah Geechee Catering Company is expected to move into 15 Marshland Road this fall, Baker said, once it receives approval from the Town of Hilton Head's Design Review Board. The restaurant will serve Gullah favorites such as gumbo, Savannah red rice, deviled crab and oyster purloo.
The restaurant is designed to have customers take their food to-go or to dine at tables on a nearby covered porch. It's envisioned as a gathering space for islanders who grew up on Gullah food and tourists who want an authentic local eating experience.
And you can't talk about Hilton Head without mentioning the influence of the Gullah culture on the island, the Lowcountry -- and, as Baker would argue, the entire Southern food genre.
"We believe Gullah cooking is the real soul food," he said. "(Southern food such as) Cajun and Creole are inspired by and have added to what we do."
Baker still recalls advice from those who taught him since the beginning.
"I didn't see the importance of being a good cook until I paid close attention to people enjoying the food," he said. "My dad used to say, 'Son, listen, you may think this is menial, but this is a service to people.
"And if you can give good service," he said, "that is so meaningful.'"
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- Hickory Tavern to move into former Fuddruckers on Hilton Head, August 20, 2015
- Fine dining restaurant, raw bar headed to Old Town Bluffton, August 13, 2015
This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 9:28 PM with the headline "Gullah Geechee Catering Company owners to open restaurant on Hilton Head."