Sallie Ann Robinson

Sallie Ann Robinson on her home island of Daufuskie, South Carolina. (Photograph from LocalLife.)

“Daufuskie Island existed as a sustainable culture before that became a buzzword of the twenty-first century. We did not worry about what we did not have; we were not in a hurry all the time; we learned through experience with the help of our whole village.”1

Sallie Ann Robinson

Sallie Ann Robinson was born in 1958 on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina and she is a chef, culinary historian, storyteller, preservationist and author. She is part of the sixth generation of her family to live on Daufuskie. While she has multiple cookbooks, the one used primarily for this website is her 2007 book Cooking the Gullah Way: Morning, Noon, & Night, which includes a foreword by renowned and respected culinary historian Jessica B. Harris. Harris—a giant within the realm of African American foodways and culinary history—says of Robinson’s book, “Progressing throughout the day from morning to noon to night, the recipes allow us all to come to the table and participate in the culinary richness of the Gullah culture.”2 Harris also adds that Robinson uses her cookbook to provide a window into the world on Daufuskie Island where she grew up:

“This is a world where the African past and the American present came together to create a new and unique culture.”3

Jessica B. Harris, PhD, culinary historian, author, journalist and professor of English at Queens College, CUNY

‘Fuskie Through Robinson’s Eyes

Sallie Ann Robinson doesn’t just write about her culinary knowledge and stories of Daufuskie, she brings people along for the ride. You can join her for a Sallie Ann Gullah Tour to see ‘Fuskie through the eyes of a “beenyah” (an island native). “You are going to have lots of laughs and wonderful memories with Sallie,”4 which is evident through this quick video showing what her tours are like:

Get a taste of a Sallie Ann Gullah Tour with Sallie Ann Robinson. (Video by St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System, Inc.)

“Everybody had their own fields, and I’m saying fields of stuff, it wasn’t just small gardens it was fields. And we work hard, but the reward was also good y’all. The reward of eating the fresh vegetables, the chicken that you raised, a hog, all of these things were good things.”5

Sallie Ann Robinson

Proceeds from the tours benefit the nonprofit Robinson founded: the Daufuskie Island Gullah Heritage Society. This organization “is working to help restore the old Gullah homes, clean up and maintain Gullah cemeteries on Daufuskie Island.”6 She says “once those houses are gone, a lot of history goes with it.”7

Robinson continues to write cookbooks and share her love of Gullah food with others. She also hosts a Gullah-themed cooking class: whenever she caters for large events, she invites people to come watch and help her cook. She says “it’s fun for me and hopefully people can learn from it.” In an interview with Southern Living, she said “My hope is to continue the legacy of a way of cooking that makes me proud.”8

“I started writing cookbooks to perfect and preserve the memories of the food that I grew up with so that our way of doing things—which is the same way my ancestors did things—wasn’t lost.”9

Sallie Ann Robinson

Hear Sallie Ann Robinson talk about the lessons she learned growing up on Daufuskie. Warning: you will be hungry after watching this video. (Video by South Carolina ETV)

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Cornelia Walker Bailey
Griot, author, community leader and Geechee from Sapelo Island, Georgia.

Footnotes

  1. Sallie Ann Robinson, Cooking the Gullah Way: Morning, Noon, & Night (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 21. Available here.
  2. Jessica B. Harris, foreword to Cooking the Gullah Way: Morning, Noon, & Night by Sallie Ann Robinson (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2007), xii. Available here.
  3. Ibid, xii.
  4. “Sallie Ann Tours and Information,” Daufuskie Island Gullah Heritage Society, accessed April 22, 2021, https://daufuskieislandgullahheritagesociety.org/tours.
  5. “Chef and cookbook author Sallie Ann Robinson on Gullah cooking,” St. Joseph’s/Chandler, YouTube, December 9, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVECbdEzap8&ab_channel=stjosephscandler.
  6. “About Us,” Daufuskie Island Gullah Heritage Society, accessed April 22, 2021, https://daufuskieislandgullahheritagesociety.org/about-us.
  7. Marisa Spyker, “Sallie Ann Robinson Is Preserving Gullah Culture One Delicious Dish at a Time,” Southern Living, February 10, 2020, https://www.southernliving.com/culture/sallie-ann-robinson-gullah-diva.
  8. Ibid.
  9. Ibid.

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