Johnnie Sue Myers is a Cherokee Elder whose passion for preserving her culinary heritage has culminated in her first cookbook: The Gathering Place — Traditional Cherokee Dishes and Southern Appalachian Cooking. of wild game meats and the gathering and preparation of wild vegetables in the Cherokee and Southern Appalachian traditions. She explains “My kitchen is ‘The Gathering Place’ where four generations of my family have gathered to share special events, deaths, births, weddings, graduations, super bowls; and each event took place with food prepared by me, with recipes that I created or were passed down by family members. The memories are priceless." The Cherokee syllabary at the top reads "Tsa la gi A da sta yv di" – "Cherokee Cooking" |
Johnnie Sue was featured on the “Appalachia” episode of The Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.
On the episode, Johnnie prepared a traditional Cherokee dinner that included sumac-seasoned trout, chestnut bread and bear. The episode is available from iTunes ($1.99) |
Her specialties are the preparation