6 | GREENVILLE JOURNAL | 2.22.2019 GREENVILLEJOURNAL.COM
SOUL FOOD
MEMOIRS FINE CATERING AND EVENT PLANNING
n story by MELODY CUENCA | photos by WILL CROOKS
The South prides itself in delicious down-home cooking. Southern dishes have won over the hearts— and palates—of people from various cultural backgrounds. With many Southern foods evolving from AfricanAmerican cooking traditions, lots of seasoning and love go into this delectable cuisine.
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n MEMOIRS FINE CATERING AND EVENT PLANNING
JAC K I E S AU N D E R S & R AYGA N F R A N C E
Sisters Raygan France and Jackie Saunders combined their loves of cooking and decorating to start Memoirs Fine Catering and Event Planning, LLC in Greenville. The sisters were raised on soul food. “I had very little to no exposure to anything else,” France says. “Soul food is what we did.” France, the chef, first learned to cook from her mother. “It doesn’t matter what your background is, food is always the gathering point for everything,” she says. Food can bring people together for any type of occasion—happy or sad. “A lot of black history is food,” she says. “That’s how people got together and fellowshipped.” Fried chicken, macaroni, collards, cornbread, and banana pudding are among the popular dishes served at client events. “It always comes back to soul food; no matter what you do, it always comes back to soul food,” France says. Soul food recipes require lots of flavor, fat, and most importantly, love. “It was always a joy to eat, to smell, to look at, to touch,” France says. “It just always brought happiness.” Saunders, the event planner, says cooking is generational in their family. “Everybody always came together on Sundays to have a meal cooked in my grandmother’s house,” she says. Mentioning soul food’s roots in slavery, Saunders says the slaves improved upon what they were given by adding seasonings. As time passed, the slaves taught their ways of cooking to those after them. “It just became a delicacy,” Saunders says. “It’s not just in the black community, it’s everywhere.”
