When Monique Wells C’81 V’85 was a biology major living in the W.E.B. DuBois College House, she invited over three classmates from her native Houston for a traditional soul-food dinner. “We had such a wonderful time preparing that meal and sharing memories of home,” she recalls. “I decided then that I wanted to do more cooking and entertaining.”
Years later, the veterinary pathologist, now based in Paris, has extended her hospitality with the publication of a cookbook for homesick African-American expatriates as well as French citizens interested in learning how to prepare hoppin’ John, oven-fried catfish and pineapple coconut cake.
La Cuisine Noire-Americaine was published last year (Editions Minerva) in France. Food for the Soul, an English version, was released in the United States last month (Elton-Wolf). Both editions bear the supreme French endorsement—a preface penned by world-renowned chef Alain Ducasse.
Wells, who returned to Philadelphia this summer to sell books at a Zeta Phi Beta sorority convention and shop her title around the city, stopped by the Gazette office to explain its origins:
“When I first got to France [in 1992], I was all into French everything.” While Wells was soaking up Parisian culture, she met another African-American woman who was very homesick. Her friend started a non-profit support group called Sisters, which Wells joined, and they began writing a cookbook together.
When her friend had to drop out of the project, Wells “decided to make it a family thing,” calling up relatives in Texas for favorite recipes, such as “Miss Grace’s Chicken and Onions,” a dish her mother ate on childhood picnics. She also researched her Creole, African, French and Spanish roots for the book and investigated the availability of various ingredients in Paris.
Despite her efforts, Wells believed her project would never reach print. After receiving rejections from American publishers and seeing deals fall through with two French firms, she was ready to move on. But the man who had translated her manuscript into French suggested finding a chef to sponsor Wells’s book.
One day, he happened to be shopping in an antique store when he mentioned Wells’s troubles. The owners said they knew Alain Ducasse and asked for permission to pass along the manuscript. Months passed. Then one night, Wells got a call from the chef, who had lined up a publisher. “I was floored,” she says, when they asked what kind of advance she had in mind.
Busy with pathology work as well as a travel-itinerary business she runs with her husband, Wells says her first inclination is to never endure the ordeal of publishing again. “But if this book is successful—it’s another story.”
