Age: 53
Home Base: Brunswick, Georgia
Known For: A James Beard Award semifinalist at his former restaurant, the Farmer & the Larder, Raiford will release his first cookbook this May,
Bress ’n’ Nyam, a chronicle of Gullah Geechee tradition and his family farm.
Farming’s in his blood: “My family’s farmland goes back to 1874, when Jupiter Gilliard, my great-great-great-grandfather, purchased 476 acres for nine dollars in taxes. We’re now farming cover crops like rye, red clover, hibiscus, sugarcane, rice, and Sea Island red field peas.”
Kitchen inspiration: “My father didn’t learn how to read and write until he was twenty-five. That didn’t stop him from being a baker by trade. He learned a very precise type of cooking through feel.”