Well, Shut My Mouth! The Sweet Potatoes Restaurant Cookbook is recipes--recipes from the restaurant, recipes from the families of chef Stephanie Tyson and co-owner Vivian Joiner, recipes that are Southern, plain and simple. In creating the recipes for Sweet Potatoes, Tyson used all of her influences Geechee flavor from Joiner's father, who was from the Hilton Head area of South Carolina; her mother's working-woman out of the can and into the pan shortcuts; and her training in culinary arts at Baltimore International College and her later work in South Carolina, the Florida Keys, Arizona, and Maryland. Just the names of the recipes in this book are enough to whet one's appetite: Pimento Cheese Fondue; Sweet Potato, Corn, and Country Ham Risotto; Gullah Shrimp and Crab Pilau; Slow Cooker Chocolate Stout Pot Roast; Down-Home 'Tata Salad; Molasses Dijon Dressing; Sweet Potato Bread Pudding with Pecan Crunch Topping; and many others. Most recipes include a bit of flavorful commentary from the chef, such as this tip for Spicy Greens: If you are faint of heart (burn), eliminate the red pepper altogether. Or the brief definition that introduces Crackling Cornbread: Cracklings are deep-fried crispy skins of various animals--in this case, pork. Well, Shut My Mouth! is also the history of the two women who started a locally and nationally acclaimed restaurant (Our State, Southern Living, New York Times). As Tyson says in her introduction, Every part of me is a part of Sweet Potatoes. In Well, Shut My Mouth! she shares a culinary experience that has been a favorite of Winston-Salem natives and visitors for years. Now, patrons have the tools to re-create the Sweet Potatoes dining experience in their own homes.

Stephanie L. Tyson (right) and her partner and co-owner, Vivian Joiner (left), opened Sweet Potatoes in the Downtown Arts District of Winston-Salem in 2004. Both live in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Everything about this book is correct except the title. Anyone with a taste bud in their mouth should follow these recipes and open their mouth. - Maya Angelou

In the introduction to Soul Food Odyssey, Chef Stephanie Tyson describes her early feelings when people assumed her Sweet Potatoes restaurant was a soul food establishment. Soul food was like the boxer George Foreman, she says. He would stand there and go toe-to-toe. It wasn't pretty, but he got the job done, and you'd be on your butt. Southern food, on the other hand, was like Muhammad Ali--a little prettier, and you'd still be on your butt I wanted Ali. I missed the connection that they were both great fighters. Once I got off my high horse, I wanted to know, from a culinary point of view, how do you make what is essentially castaway food into a 'cuisine'? In Soul Food Odyssey, Tyson takes readers along on her journey back to find the food her grandmother called sumntaeat. The recipes she shares include how to cook various parts of the pig from the router to the tooter; other meat dishes, including everything from stewed turkey wings and pot roast to a Low Country boil; what Tyson calls stone soul sides, including crackling cornbread, hoecakes, and, of course, different kinds of greens; soups and stews including oxtail and fish head stew and Everything in It Vegetable Soup; and desserts to sell your soul for. Along with the recipes come Tyson's comments, which reflect her biting wit as well as her deep appreciation of the food she has come to embrace.

Stephanie L. Tyson is a creative chef who has turned growing up in the South into the soul of her restaurant, Sweet Potatoes. Born in North Carolina, Tyson spent countless hours dreaming of the bright lights of anywhere else. But once she left to travel and cook around the world, she could not believe what a relief it was to come home again. Trained in culinary arts at Baltimore International College, Chef Tyson opened her award-winning restaurant with her partner, Vivi n Joiner, in 2003 in the downtown Arts District of Winston-Salem, where they live.