Vertamae Grosvenor-Smart
“My daddy always told me that you had to watch people who never dirtied the kitchen. He said if they don’t make a mess in the kitchen they ain’t cooking nothing fit to eat.”
April 4th 1937 - September 3rd 2016
Dr. Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor was a culinary griot, cook, writer, actress, traveler, and NPR commentator (1980s through the early 00s) who was born and raised in the Gullah Geechee community of Daufuskie Island in South Carolina.
She wrote a handful of books including the groundbreaking “Vibration Cooking: The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl” (1970) along with titles like “Vertamae Cooks in the Americas’ Family Kitchen” (1996)“ and “Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off” (2018) all of which intertwined autobiographical narrrative with recipes she grew up with.
On top of writing, traveling, and talking about gullah geechee foodways Dr. Vertamae was a culinary activist who cooked for the Black Panther’s Free Breakfast Program. She also received several awards throughout her career including an Honorary Doctorate from the University of New Hampshire.
Illustration by Brittanie Mitchell for Seeds & Receipts
DIG DEEPER
Interview talking about cooking (8 min.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWNQ3nr1R3M
Vibration Cooking, or the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl by Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor
VICE Article by Mayukh Sen https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evmbwj/vertamae-smart-grosvenor-vibration-cooking-profile
More about Vertmae https://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/david-lauderdale/article33535389.html
For the Culture Magazine (Vertamae Speaking in Clips of Post)