Mama Dip’s daughter Spring Council reflects on the beloved community icon’s legacy in a new cookbook memoir, serving up Southern dishes alongside the stories that have shaped her as a chef and author
Always use the freshest ingredients. The difference between using Parmesan versus Parmesan-Reggiano can make a dish. It takes patience to perfect a recipe. “Keep trying,” Mildred “Mama Dip” Council would encourage her daughter Spring Council. These reminders were more than cooking advice for Spring – when combined, they became the recipe for growing into the chef, author and person she is today.
Mama Dip was the visionary behind West Rosemary Street’s iconic Mama Dip’s Kitchen, a staple in Chapel Hill since 1976. Although Spring’s mother died in 2018 at 89 and the restaurant closed last year, Mama Dip’s community-loving spirit and legacy of superb Southern comfort food continue to flourish through generations of the Council family.
Spring, her daughter, Tonya Council – founder of Tonya’s Cookies – and other family members were all taught how to cook by Mama Dip, but the lessons she instilled in each of them go beyond technique in the kitchen. In Spring’s new cookbook, “Southern Roots: Recipes and Stories from Mama Dip’s Daughter,” she recounts her inherited knowledge and memories that inspired her new collection of original recipes. “While [the recipes] honor my roots, I’ve added new layers of flavor to create something fresh that reflects the bounty of the South today,” she says.
A WRITER’S ROUX
Spring originally began with the idea of writing a book on entertaining at home in 2015, but that manuscript was met with rejection. So she put her writing on hold until 2022 when her close friend, Marcie Cohen Ferris, professor emeritus at UNC and former president of the Southern Foodways Alliance, suggested she shift her concept to a culinary memoir. At first, Spring says she had reservations about whether anyone would want to read her story, but after encouragement from Marcie and other friends, she gained confidence in how her lived experiences set her apart. “I realized that people don’t just want a recipe, they want the stories behind it,” she says…