ALEXANDER SMALLS
The creator of Southern revival cooking, ALEXANDER SMALLS is the owner of Smalls & Co., a catering business with a clientele that includes celebrities such as Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, and Toni Morrison; and is the former owner of New York’s celebrated Cafe Beulah. A classically trained baritone, Smalls lives in New York City.
MEALS, MUSIC, AND MUSES
Recipes from My African American Kitchen
Flatiron - February 11, 2020
Iconic chef and world-renowned opera singer Alexander Smalls marries two of his greatest passions―food and music―in Meals, Music, and Muses. More than just a cookbook, Smalls takes readers on a delicious journey through the South to examine the food that has shaped the region. Each chapter is named for a type of music, to help readers understand the spirit that animates these recipes.
Filled with classic Southern recipes and twists on old favorites, this cookbook includes starts such as Hoppin’ John Cakes with Sweet Pepper Remoulade and Carolina Bourbon Barbecue Shrimp and Okra Skewers, and main dishes like Roast Quail in Bourbon Cream Sauce and Prime Rib Roast with Crawfish Onion Gravy.
Complete with anecdotes of Smalls’ childhood in the Low Country and examinations of Southern musical tradition, Meals, Music, and Muses is a heritage cookbook in the tradition of Edna Lewis’s A Taste of Country Cooking.
praise for meals, music, and muses
One of the Best Lifestyle Books of 2020 by Publishers Weekly
“With food writer Chambers, Smalls creates a ‘playlist’ of ‘essential African-American dishes’ in which each chapter is inspired by a different musical tradition… Home cooks are sure to give this excellent recipe collection a standing ovation.”―Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Alexander Smalls has owned, conceptualized, and helmed some of New York’s most iconic African American restaurants. Now, he follows up the James Beard award-winning Between Harlem and Heaven with Meals, Music, and Muses, a look at his world glimpsed through the lenses of music, food, culture, and history. It is a must-read journey through a life well lived and in recipe and reminiscence details the musical forms learned, the friends and family who instructed, and the foods shared along the way.”―Jessica B. Harris
“If wine is bottled poetry, and jazz is brown sugar sprinkled in your ear, then Meals, Music, and Muses is a smorgasbord of fine words and sounds, a delicious symphony of haute cuisine that’ll make you wanna kiss your momma, then thank the ancestors for making a way out of no way―for Hoppin’ John Cakes and Grits and Sage Sausage Gravy and Frogmore Stew and all the recipes Alexander Smalls has reimagined so elegantly.”―Kwame Alexander
“I had the great honor of being a guest at one of Alexander’s famous Sunday brunches in his beautiful brownstone in Harlem. The food was unbelievably delicious! It was a magical afternoon that I will never forget.”―Tina Knowles-Lawson
“In Meals, Music, and Muses, Alexander creates a lyrical culinary anthology of our lives. A symphonic composition full of stories, contemporary southern recipes that celebrates the food and musical genres that influenced the history of America… He sets the table in a unique way from jazz to blues to divas on a plate…This is not your mother’s cookbook…"―Dee Dee Bridgewater
BETWEEN HARLEM AND HEAVEN
Afro-Asian-American Cooking for Big Nights, Weeknights, and Every Day
Flatiron - February 6, 2018
In two of the most renowned and historic venues in Harlem, Alexander Smalls and JJ Johnson created a unique take on the Afro-Asian-American flavor profile. Their foundation was a collective three decades of traveling the African diaspora, meeting and eating with chefs of color, and researching the wide reach of a truly global cuisine; their inspiration was how African, Asian, and African-American influences criss-crossed cuisines all around the world. They present here for the first time over 100 recipes that go beyond just one place, taking you, as noted by The New Yorker, “somewhere between Harlem and heaven.”
This book branches far beyond "soul food" to explore the melding of Asian, African, and American flavors. The Afro Asian flavor profile is a window into the intersection of the Asian diaspora and the African diaspora. An homage to this cultural culinary path and the grievances and triumphs along the way, Between Harlem and Heaven isn’t fusion, but a glimpse into a cuisine that made its way into the thick of Harlem's cultural renaissance.
JJ Johnson and Alexander Smalls bring these flavors and rich cultural history into your home kitchen with recipes for...
Grilled Watermelon Salad with Lime Mango Dressing and Cornbread Croutons
Feijoada with Black Beans and Spicy Lamb Sausage
Creamy Macaroni and Cheese Casserole with Rosemary and Caramelized Shallots
Festive punches and flavorful easy sides, sauces, and marinades to incorporate into your everyday cooking life.
Complete with essays on the history of Minton’s Jazz Club, the melting pot that is Harlem, and the Afro-Asian flavor profile by bestselling coauthor Veronica Chambers, who just published the wildly successful Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson, this cookbook brings the rich history of the Harlem food scene back to the home cook.
praise for between harlem and heaven
A 2019 James Beard Media Award Winner
“Between Harlem and Heaven presents a captivatingly original cuisine. Afro-Asian-American cooking is packed with unique and delicious layers of flavor. These stories and recipes lay praise to the immense influence the African Diaspora has had on global cuisine.”―Sean Brock
“This is more than just a cookbook. Alexander and JJ take us on a culinary journey through space and time that started more than 400 years ago, on the shores of West Africa. Through inspiring recipes that have survived the Middle Passage to seamlessly embrace Asian influences, this book is a testimony to the fact that food transcends borders."―Chef Pierre Thiam
"Between Harlem and Heaven is a celebration of food, culture, and the historic legacy of proud people unsung. This is the story of resilience and reverence, of people farming and cooking from one continent to the other, making delicious flavors in every pot. Alexander's culinary vision captures the essence, contribution, and influence of the African Diaspora, and is the result of his passionate, life-long adventure. There's no better place than the cradle of African American culture itself, between heaven and Harlem. This book is one good time of great dishes and interesting stories."―Cicely Tyson
GRACE THE TABLE
Stories and Recipes from My Southern Revival
Harlem Moon – November 2, 2004
An atmospheric memoir filled with marvelous tales about the joys of food, music, and life—seasoned with one hundred of Alexander Smalls’s celebrated world-class recipes.
In Grace the Table, the father of southern revival cooking serves up a delectable combination of memoir and cookbook as he recounts his life’s journey from his hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina, to the cosmopolitan cities of Europe and into the homes and hearts of Manhattan’s socialites and celebrities.
With an unabashed passion for food and a buoyant personality, Smalls recollects his grandparents’ Low Country cooking, and the almost spiritual power of a panful of hot buttermilk biscuits with fresh butter and sorghum. “Food was wealth to us,” Smalls writes, “the kitchen was Fort Knox, and I felt rich just opening the refrigerator.” Leaving small-town South Carolina, Smalls would become a world-class opera singer, an odyssey that introduced a wealth of new tastes and led him to his ultimate calling: cooking. He feasted on Chinese takeout in New York, Steak au Poivre in Paris, Grilled Swordfish Rolls in Palermo—but everywhere he traveled, he carried with him the cuisine of the American South.
In this unique book, Smalls shares his stories, family photographs, and one hundred of his inspiring culinary creations—sumptuous feasts, perfect for long dinners with family and friends. Sweet Potato Waffles and Southern Fried Chicken, Stuffed Veal Chops and Seafood Puppies, Pan-Roasted Salmon and Chocolate Raspberry Bread Pudding…just six of the glorious treats invented during Smalls’s adventures. A memoir sprinkled with recipes that are a delicious blend of traditional fare and international flair, Grace the Table will remind you of home no matter where you come from.
Praise for GRACE THE TABLE
“Alexander Smalls dances and sings and cooks his way through a brilliant and fascinating portrait of Southern comfort.”—Cicely Tyson