Coatesville chef Chris Scott, the Top Chef alum and owner of Harlem’s Butterfunk Biscuit, has penned a new cookbook that is part memoir and part history of soul cooking in Pennsylvania, writes Elizabeth Wellington for The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

Homage: Recipes + Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen is not only filled with pictures of scrumptious-looking meals and their recipes, but also important essays like “The Story of the Birdman.” These share how enslaved Black men were behind the introduction of fried chicken, the quintessential all-American meal. 

Scott also writes about how Black and Amish people’s lives have been intertwined through food in Chester County for over a century. 

“It’s a love letter to my kids about where they come from,” said Scott. 

Scott’s family settled in Coatesville in the early 1900s during the Great Migration. Once they began to get to know the town and its inhabitants, Scott’s grandmother started infusing Amish ingredients with traditional soul food like many others. 

Scott has not steered far from his grandmother’s cooking and continues to add the Amish touch to his recipes. 

“It’s a bright, hot, and sweet flavor that’s distinctively inspired by Amish cuisine,” he said. 

Read more about Chris Scott in The Philadelphia Inquirer.