The 2000 publication of Food for the Soul: A Texas Expatriate Nurtures Her Culinary Roots in Paris accomplished two goals for its author, Monique Wells. Collecting the recipes resolved her—and other Parisian African Americans’—hankering for a taste of home, and sharing lovely, seasonal dishes like maque choux (adapted here) opened the eyes of elite French cooks to the flavors of the American South and Southwest. This led noted French chef Alain Ducasse to write Wells’s preface, lauding generations of Black cooks who, like Wells, dedicated themselves to uplifting the image of soul food.