The Gullah Geechee phrase “bress 'n' nyam,” means “bless and eat,” which could not be a more fitting title for Matthew Raiford’s new cookbook. Raiford, who refers to himself as a “CheFarmer,” as both cooking and farming are equally integral to his lifestyle, calls this book his “origin story.” Weaving together his family history through heirloom recipes, Bress ‘n’ Nyam is a true farm-to-table cookbook in the Gullah Geechee tradition,.
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Matthew Raiford, a chef and farmer, always wanted to write a cookbook, specifically a cookbook about the South. The opportunity presented itself after he gave a TEDx talk in 2018. As Raiford sat offstage following the talk, titled “Legacy in the Soil,” writer Amy Condon approached him. “Amy walks out and goes, ‘Okay, you need to write a book,’” Raiford says. “And I just looked up at her and I was like, ‘Yeah, if you help me write it.’”
Buy Bress ‘n’ Nyam at Amazon or Bookshop.
The book Raiford wrote with Condon is called
Bress ’n’ Nyam, a Gullah phrase meaning “bless and eat.” And like that TEDx talk, it dives deep into Raiford’s own family legacy to give readers a sense of a place: his corner of the Georgia coast and more precisely, Gilliard Farms, the land that’s been in his family for six generations, since 1874.