Chef inspired by grandmother’s work in civil rights movement authors southern biscuit book

ATLANTA — Atlanta chef Erika Council was born to bake.

“The biscuits are constantly being made throughout the day,” Erika said.

A whole lot of biscuits, 1,500 to 2,000 every day at her Bomb Biscuit company along Highland Avenue.

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Council told Channel 2 Action News that she learned how to bake from the very best.

“Everyone in the neighborhood who made the best biscuits were like goddesses. I wanted to be the same way,” Erika said.

We don’t often think about it, but leaders of the civil rights movement also had to eat.

Her grandma Mildred “Mama Dip” Council who ran a restaurant was one, and another grandma, Geraldine Dortch, who ran bake sales to raise money during the early days of the Civil Rights movement.

Council says her grandmother’s work inspired her to write a cookbook.

She told Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen that the recipes in the book include stories from the early days of the Civil Rights Movement.

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“It was just something she always taught me. Like when she was telling me the story of a lemon cake she baked. Let me tell you about the time I made this and Medgar Evers was there,” Erika said.

“How does it make your heart feel when you walk in every day and see photos of your grandmothers on the wall of your restaurant,” Petersen asked.

“I think they’re watching over me,” Council said.

Now it’s Erika’s turn to tell the stories.

The chef is now an author of a cookbook. A tribute to the African American community and the Southern biscuit. It’s appropriately titled, “Still We Rise.”

“My mom always says all the people who paved the way for me are still here because I’m here. So it’s important that people know how I got here, and why I’m still here,” Erika said.

“Still We Rise” will be in bookstores in a few weeks. It’s already for sale online.

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