The Long Table: Southern Cooking, Memory, and Meaning
- 300 S Hull Street, Athens, GA 30602
- Presented By: UGA Special Collections Libraries
- Dates: March 12, 2026
- Location: UGA Special Collections Libraries
- Time: 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
- Price: $25
Join UGA Special Collections Libraries on Thursday, March 12th at 6pm in the Large Event Space (Room 285) for a conversation about how food connects to our collective history. The panel will feature established cookbook authors Valerie Frey, Nicole Taylor, and Virginia Willis, with moderator Rebecca Lang.. After the discussion, enjoy a curated selection of refreshments created using the authors’ recipes. Registration is required;tickets are $25 each.
Parking in the Hull Street Deck (located across the street from the Special Collections Building) is free after 5pm.
More about the authors:
Nicole A. Taylor is a James Beard Award-nominated food writer, home cook, editor, consultant, and producer. Her works include Watermelon & Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations, The Up South Cookbook and The Last O.G. Cookbook. She has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NPR, Apple, BET, and NBC News. In 2019, Brooklyn Magazine named Taylor one of its 100 influential people in Brooklyn culture.
Virginia Willis is a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author, chef, content creator, and motivational speaker. She is Georgia-born and French-trained. Willis founded Good and Good for You, a lifestyle brand that shares health and wellness strategies through digital channels, print media, and public speaking. Her works include Bon Appetit, Y'all; Fresh Start, Secrets of the Southern Table, Lighten Up, Y'all; Basic to Brilliant, and more. She has been featured on The Rachel Ray Show, CBS This Morning, and Martha Stewart Living.
Rebecca Lang is a food writer, cooking instructor, and television personality born and raised in South Georgia. Some of her works include Pimento Cheese: The Southern Spread, Y'all Come Over, and The Southern Vegetable Book. Her book Fried Chicken was chosen by the Los Angeles Times as one of the best cookbooks of 2015, the same year she named one of Georgia Trend's 40 Under 40. She has appeared on QVC and the Food Network, and has been featured in Southern Living, The Wall Street Journal, Martha Stewart Living, and more publications.
Valeria Frey is a writer and archivist who focuses on personal writing, local history, and folklife. She grew up on Sapelo Island in Georgia, but Cleveland County, Arkansas is her ancestral homeland; both places remain sources of inspiration for her works. Frey has an extensive history working in Georgia archives and won a Georgia Humanities Council grant to create Down Home Days, an annual event to help kids develop a love of history. Her cookbooks featured Southern recipes over the generations, detailing the changes overtime but also the traditions that have stayed with us.
Join UGA Special Collections Libraries on Thursday, March 12th at 6pm in the Large Event Space (Room 285) for a conversation about how food connects to our collective history. The panel will feature established cookbook authors Valerie Frey, Nicole Taylor, and Virginia Willis, with moderator Rebecca Lang.. After the discussion, enjoy a curated selection of refreshments created using the authors’ recipes. Registration is required;tickets are $25 each.
Parking in the Hull Street Deck (located across the street from the Special Collections Building) is free after 5pm.
More about the authors:
Nicole A. Taylor is a James Beard Award-nominated food writer, home cook, editor, consultant, and producer. Her works include Watermelon & Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations, The Up South Cookbook and The Last O.G. Cookbook. She has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NPR, Apple, BET, and NBC News. In 2019, Brooklyn Magazine named Taylor one of its 100 influential people in Brooklyn culture.
Virginia Willis is a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author, chef, content creator, and motivational speaker. She is Georgia-born and French-trained. Willis founded Good and Good for You, a lifestyle brand that shares health and wellness strategies through digital channels, print media, and public speaking. Her works include Bon Appetit, Y'all; Fresh Start, Secrets of the Southern Table, Lighten Up, Y'all; Basic to Brilliant, and more. She has been featured on The Rachel Ray Show, CBS This Morning, and Martha Stewart Living.
Rebecca Lang is a food writer, cooking instructor, and television personality born and raised in South Georgia. Some of her works include Pimento Cheese: The Southern Spread, Y'all Come Over, and The Southern Vegetable Book. Her book Fried Chicken was chosen by the Los Angeles Times as one of the best cookbooks of 2015, the same year she named one of Georgia Trend's 40 Under 40. She has appeared on QVC and the Food Network, and has been featured in Southern Living, The Wall Street Journal, Martha Stewart Living, and more publications.
Valeria Frey is a writer and archivist who focuses on personal writing, local history, and folklife. She grew up on Sapelo Island in Georgia, but Cleveland County, Arkansas is her ancestral homeland; both places remain sources of inspiration for her works. Frey has an extensive history working in Georgia archives and won a Georgia Humanities Council grant to create Down Home Days, an annual event to help kids develop a love of history. Her cookbooks featured Southern recipes over the generations, detailing the changes overtime but also the traditions that have stayed with us.