Daufuskie SC native cookbook author inducted into James Beard Book Awards Hall of Fame

Sixth-generation Gullah and Daufuskie Island native Sallie Ann Robinson was inducted into the James Beard Book Awards Hall of Fame Saturday.

The James Beard Foundation awards America’s best chefs and culinary writers annually. Robinson was recognized for her four books of Gullah recipes and her life on Daufuskie.

She appeared at the James Beard media awards ceremony in Chicago. Her grandmother told her hard work pays off, but she never expected to receive such recognition, she said.

Robinson has a unique perspective on food. She grew up catching and harvesting the ingredients for her meals, she said. Her experience taught her to treat cooking with respect.

“I learned to nurture, from the beginning to the end, and taste it, and watch it, and, like I say, respect it,” she said. “Because if you don’t respect it, you might come up with something you don’t want.”

Daufuskie Island had no electricity or water infrastructure in Robinson’s youth, she said. Her first stove used wood fire for heat and she didn’t have a refrigerator. Everything her and her family ate was caught, hunted or harvested on the island.

“I never knew hunger growing up, because I learned how to respect and love food the way I was taught,” she said.

Robinson learned to cook from her mother and grandmother, she said. Her mother taught her recipes and how to cook without taking shortcuts. Recipes were memorized, not written down.

“I grew up remembering these recipes, because of how you prepare it,” she said. “You didn’t need a book to tell you how to do something you could feel. It was like a song being sung.”

Robinson decided to start writing when she worked as a nurse, she said. After cooking a meal for one of her patients, they asked if her recipes were written down. She then realized her recipes needed to be shared.

But it wasn’t easy to write them. “It just looked like it was writing on a paper,” she said about her first attempt. And so she accompanied them with stories of her life on Daufuskie.

For Robinson, a recipe alone is not enough. Her stories help explain what the food means to her, and why it should be prepared the way she was taught.

She has difficulty understanding why some people view cooking as a chore, she said. The more you enjoy cooking, the better your cooking will be, she said.

“I have a passion for it,” she said. “It’s like a dance. I can move around in that kitchen like it was meant for me.”

She also works as a private chef, traveling to homes and cooking for people. She enjoys cooking in front of people, where they can watch and learn from her.

Robinson also leads tours of Daufuskie with the Daufuskie Island Gullah Heritage Society, and she coauthored a book on the history of Daufuskie. Tours can be booked here.

Robinson said she is working on a fifth book. It will be her memoir.

“I think it’s time people know a little more about me,” she said.