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Gina Capers-Willis calls herself a Geechee Girl. Her roots come from Daufuskie Island, South Carolina and the Gullah islands off the Georgia coast. But she grew up in Savannah at a time when she says Gullah Geechee culture wasn’t always appreciated.
“Our patois language was frowned upon and thought of as broken English. But the Gullah Geechee people were living on islands isolated from the mainland, so they kept more of their African language and heritage,” she explains. “Now people are embracing the culture, but I want them to embrace it for the right reasons and to carry the traditions on authentically,” she emphasizes.
And that’s become her passion and purpose. “My mother taught culinary arts and was a home economics teacher and my father was in hospitality,” she notes. “I started off baking because my mother was known as ‘The Red Velvet Cake Lady.’ She made a mean red velvet cake.”
But when her mother stopped making them, one of her mother’s former home economics students asked Capers-Willis if she would. She did it begrudgingly, but the next day, the friend brought her five more orders.
“Then I started cooking meals for my boyfriend and taking pictures and putting them online, and everybody started asking, ‘What’s Gina cooking today?’ And that’s how I got my handle.”
RELATED: Gee Smalls Honors Gullah Geechee Culture at Virgil’s Gullah Kitchen and Bar
Culture of Gullah Geechee Cuisine
“Gullah Geechee cuisine is food from the land—a lot of okra, a lot of rice, a lot of seafood,” states Capers-Willis. “Savannah was one of the largest sites for slave auctions, and a lot of those Africans brought seeds with them,” she explains.
“We have something we call Savannah red rice, which is similar to jollof rice in Africa. So there were a lot of rice farms in the Gullah Geechee sea islands.” She adds that Gullah Geechee cooking is also basic, without a lot of extra ingredients. “My mom used to make the best fried chicken with just salt and pepper. We should be purest about some of our traditional recipes,” she says with passion.
Years ago, her grandparents had a club/restaurant on Wilmington Island, Georgia, where her grandmother was known for her deviled crab. “I love making that dish and making gumbo,” says the chef.
“Ours is reddish brown, not chocolate brown like New Orleans because we put tomatoes and tomato paste in it,” she explains. “I also like making sweet potato pone, marsh hens over rice and crab pie. I call mine seafood pie because I add shrimp,” she confides.
TRY GINA’S RECIPE: Hoppin John
Pride in Cooking and Culture
Capers-Willis prefers showcasing her cooking through intimate gatherings. She and her friend Cheryl Day (Back in the Day Bakery) call themselves The Culinary Cousins having collaborated on events, including her quarterly “Grits & Gumbo Supper Club.”
She and her mom, who passed away in February 2023, also did an episode of “Family Dinner” on the Magnolia Network and her collaboration with Black Southern Belle magazine for the Food Network garnered a Daytime Emmy nomination.
Working on her third cookbook, Capers-Willis says she’ll include the recipe for her mom’s biscuits. “And I want to start doing preserves and butters to go with them,” she says. Biscuits are part of her favorite Gullah Geechee breakfast, along with smothered shrimp or fried fish and grits.
She also loves fried fish with Savannah red rice and [pan] fried okra, and here’s her tip to get rid of the slime. “Slice your okra and line it up on paper towels. And once it drains, flip it over and drain it again,” she notes.
The Savannah chef also shows pride in her culture through her line of T-shirts with sayings like Thick Like a Bowl of Cold Grits on Sunday Morning and I Come from Collard Greens, Cornbread, Okra Gumbo & Red Rice.
“When I go to Charleston restaurants and see chefs getting credit for what they now call Lowcountry cooking and then see people who look like me doing the actual cooking in the kitchen, it concerns me,” she states emphatically.
“That’s why I want to start a commissary kitchen to help my people cultivate their culinary talent and run with it,” she shares excitedly. “Our cooking is not a trend; it’s our heritage. We must stand on our ancestors’ shoulders and keep it going.”
To see What Gina’s Cooking next, check out her website, along with @whatsginacooking on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
