From the book description: 

“

Throughout Maya Angelou's life, from her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, to her world travels as a bestselling writer, good food has played a central role. Preparing and enjoying homemade meals provides a sense of purpose and calm, accomplishment and connection.

Now, in Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, Angelou shares memories pithy and poignantand the recipes that helped to make them indelible and irreplaceable.

Angelou tells us about the time she fled school after an altercation with her teacher-and her mother baked a delicious caramel cake to brighten her spirits.

She gives us her recipe for short ribs along with a story about a job she had as a cook at a Creole restaurant (never mind that she didn't know how to cook and had no idea what Creole food was). There was the time in London when she attended a wretched dinner party; but

all wasn't lost-she did experience her initial taste of a savory onion tart. She recounts her very first night in her new home in Sonoma, California, when she invited M.F.K. Fisher over for cassoulet, and the evening when a beyond-tipsy Decca Mitford roasted a chicken-and created Chicken, Drunkard Style. And then there was the hearty brunch Angelou made for a homesick South-erner, a meal that earned her both a job offer and a prophetic compliment: "If you can write half as good as you can cook, you are going to be famous."

Maya Angelou is renowned in her wide and generous circle of friends as a marvelous chef. Her kitchen is a social center. From fried meat pies, chicken livers, and beef Wellington to caramel cake, bread pudding, 

and chocolate éclairs, the dozens of recipes included here are all tried and true, and come from Angelou's home and her heart. Hallelujah! The Welcome Table is a stunning combination of the two things Angelou loves best: writing and cooking.“