This episode contains references to drug use.

This is the Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food, to learn more about people, and we're coming to you live from the Buckman Performing Arts Center in Memphis.

Thank you. Center in Memphis. Very good, Memphis.

Well done.

Thank you all so much for being here.

It's great to be here for our first live taping in the South,

not counting Atlanta, which I guess is the South,

but I mean,

I'll probably have to cut that out because I'm going to insult people in Atlanta. That's the South. Thank you all for being here for our first ever live taping in Tennessee. We'll go with that,

okay?

Hey, everyone, quick note before we get into this week's episode that we are celebrating the South all month long here on the Sporkful.

I recently took this road trip across Alabama and Mississippi.

I stopped to chow down at a bunch of gas station eateries, something the South is famous for.

I dined on chicken, spaghetti, gas station sushi, and more. I met a lot of great

folks along the way, and we will have that episode for you next week. Then later this month,

we'll have a feature on legendary cookbook author Edna Lewis, then a story about a barbecue pitmaster

and preacher in rural Tennessee. But today, kicking off for a month in the South, we're live from Memphis.

My guest tonight was born and raised here in Memphis. As a young woman, she moved to New York

where she was involved in the art scene and opened automatic Slims, a restaurant that's become

an institution there. She returned home to Memphis and started a catering business, often cooking

for movie stars who came to town for shoots.

Tapping into her art background, she opened a series of restaurants in increasingly unlikely spaces around Memphis, from an old Victorian home to a former hair salon.

...