Peytonia Cook Book

Atholene Peyton spent her life dedicated to education and fellowship. She was a beloved teacher of culinary classes at Central Colored High School in Louisville, Kentucky, and an admired member of the city's Black community who entertained often and gained recognition for her recipes. When the need for a textbook to guide her students through all aspects of the kitchen arose, Peyton forged ahead and published her own in 1906.

A revamping of the first Kentucky cookbook written by an African American woman, the recipes in Peytonia Cook Book have powerful cultural significance in every bite. While Peytonia provides instructions for making everything from delectable breads and meats to drinks and desserts, it goes beyond the dining table, offering tips to help readers set up practical cooking and storage spaces, select the best quality ingredients, and be successful hosts. New additions include a biography of Atholene Peyton--detailing her life, career, and legacy--as well as explanations of changes to the text and of the context in which Peyton originally wrote the book.

Editor Donna Hecker's updated version of Peytonia Cook Book brings this twentieth-century gem to the present for food historians and home cooks alike to enjoy.