Celeb Chef’s Cookbook Shares Stars’ Favorite Dishes

Celeb Chef’s Cookbook Shares Stars’ Favorite Dishes

Want to prepare the comfort food recipes that have tickled the palates of everyone from Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris to actor Danny Glover, author Dr. Cornel West, Governor Gavin Newsom, and multi-platinum selling musical group, Tony! Toni! Toné!? How about serving up plates of food that were fed the founders of Google, Uber and YouTube?  Then you will want to pick up your copy of Chef Rene Johnson’s new soul food coffee table style cookbook, From My Heart to Your Table: Vegan and Traditional Soul Food.

Chef Rene Johnson has fed some of the most celebrated artists, media personalities, Silicon Valley superstars and politicians in California’s Bay Area, and now she is brining those famous dishes, along with the stories behind them, into your family’s kitchen with easy to follow recipes that taste like heaven and won’t compromise health.

Why? Because Chef Rene has made a name for herself by taking her grandmother’s homespun southern soul food appetizers, entrees, and desserts, and making them every bit as flavorful and culturally relevant, without many of the harmful fats added to traditional soul food.

In addition to heart-warming stories behind her most famous dishes, Chef Rene spills the sweet tea on some of the famous people she has fed.

“Vice President Kamala Harris has a sweet tooth, says Rene. Her favorites were the desserts I made for her event, like my mini sweet potato pies, mini cupcakes, and mini homemade cookies.”

“California Governor Gavin Newson throws a yearly event for Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and they loved my vegan greens, picnic potato salad, traditional mac and cheese, vegan candied yams, and cornbread,” but, she says, “the vegan quinoa meatloaf was Gavin’s favorite.”

“Actor Danny Glover gravitated towards my vegan beans and rice. That was his favorite by far,” says Rene.

“Dr. Cornell West enjoyed the jerk turkey meatballs, mini mac and cheese bites, and vegan red beans and rice. Then he dug into my blackberry jam cupcakes.”

From My Heart to Your Table features all of the soul food appetizers, entrees, and desserts Chef Rene Johnson has been famous for from Hollywood and Silicon Valley to Washington, DC.

A true pioneer of the healthier soul food and vegan soul food movements, Chef Rene’s food is so flavorful and delicious, you won’t miss the meat and dairy or the excess fat in her vegan dishes. Not plant based? No problem. The cookbook offers healthier incarnations of traditionally prepared soul food as well.

Some of Chef Rene’s vegan soul food dishes include: fresh tomato succotash, smothered cabbage, vegan dirty rice, vegan fried okra bites, cashew cream sauce, vegan butter beans, mini quinoa and spinach cakes, and quinoa meatloaf.

More traditional fare featured in the cookbook includes: hot water corn bread,  junky black eyed peas aka “cold day chicken soup,” sticky barbeque wings, big ol’ pot of gumbo, grandmother’s fried chicken, off the hook ox-tails, the mac attack mac and cheese, salmon croquettes, stewed salmon and grits, and more.

And the desserts will make your head spin: sweet potato pecan pie, peach cobbler, blackberry jam cupcakes, vegan chocolate chip cookies, and her signature “Mama Cake (yellow cake with chocolate icing).”

Please reach out to me to interview Chef Rene Johnson about the famous people she’s fed with her award winning soul food, the healthy and vegan soul food movements, and the release From My Heart to Your Kitchen: Vegan and Traditional Soul Food Cookbo