Chamaine
I grew up at my mother’s elbow, watching her cook.
I grew up in a little town in South Carolina, where everyone knows who your parents are. By the time you walk into the grocery store, you’re already saying, “Hi, how are you?” at least 30 times. It was very close knit.
What were your favorite parts about your community?
Of course the get togethers! Every weekend my parents were cooking, barbecuing, drinking—my mom was the Mint Julep Queen. I think that’s why I like bourbon to this day. There was a certain closeness, togetherness that was always around food. And I grew up at my mother’s elbow, watching her cook.
What were some of the foods that you remember her cooking?
Well it’s the South, so they weren’t necessarily healthy. But she makes the best buttermilk biscuits that I’ve ever had. And of course her shrimp and grits. You see, in South Carolina there are two very distinct cultures. You have the low country—the beach where it’s seafood everything, and the high country where I’m from which is more in the mountains. In the low country, it’s all about what they’d call gumbo in Louisiana—shrimp, sausage, and tomatoes over rice. I can’t duplicate it—I won’t even try. And I’ll never order shrimp and grits out here. It’s just not the same.
Why?
In South Carolina when you go to the grocery store there are a couple of aisles just of grits. You don’t see that here. So, you can’t duplicate it and I don’t want to duplicate it. I just have to wait to go home.
What’s something you wish people knew about the South that the stereotypes might not capture?
It’s just laid back. When you stop to get directions, ”It’s just down the road, Honey!” Now, down the road might mean three hours later, but that’s just how it is. When you’re at a stoplight and the light turns green, no one ever honks. They just wait—even if it means waiting ‘til the light turns back. It’s just slow and easy.
I made a very deliberate choice to move to Oakland because of the diversity. I did not want my children to grow up in a situation where they were the only ones. But working in corporate America out West, I still had to deal with a lot. There’s a different kind of racism out here.
How did you cope and find support?
I traveled. I made sure I got away. I cooked a lot. Cooking for me is therapeutic. It’s never about the money with cooking. Everything else is about the money. I’m an entrepreneur—a graphic and web designer and own my own business, so I’m always thinking in terms of growth and monetary success. But cooking isn’t about that.
For me, cooking is about creativity. Whatever I do has to have some type of creativity involved. And you can’t get any closer to creativity than cooking. I don’t use recipes, I don’t measure things out. All the cooking is always me just freestyling.
Some of the best conversations happen around the dinner table. It’s like traveling in that respect. You can take people on journeys through food. Growing up my mother, who loved to read said the best thing about reading is that you can travel throughout the world. I grew up reading a ton of books and she’s absolutely right. With food it’s like traveling the world through different cuisines.
How do you try to make the world a better place?
On a micro level—for me, myself, and my family—it’s always been very important to me that my children get to travel internationally to understand the different cultures and religions of the world, so they can develop a compassionate nature.
Why do you think that’s important?
The world needs more empathy and compassion. As African-Americans, it’s really easy for us to get wrapped up in our struggle here in the US and not understand that everyone struggles — different groups, different nationalities, different religions. This isn’t to take away from our struggle, but to understand that we’re not in it by ourselves.
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