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photo by steed media service
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Food Editor, Ebony Magazine
Charlotte Lyons has been creating appetizing meals for over 20 years.
She is now the food editor of Ebony magazine and just published The New
Ebony Cookbook. Before Ebony, Lyons worked for some of the best food
companies in America. “Originally I was unaware, when I was in school,
of the different positions in home economics and I thought I was just
going to teach,” recalls Lyons of the beginning of her career.
“I joined this organization called Home Economist and Business, and I
learned that there were all kinds of jobs working with the food
industries. I was working at General Mills for Betty Crocker doing
recipe development and food photography,” says Lyons. “Later I went to
Campbell Soup and I learned that they always had people develop recipes
for the labels and the back of the boxes and people who styled the food
for commercials. And I was really fascinated with it.”
Lyons wants aspiring cooks to know it doesn’t take being in the kitchen
all day to make the perfect feast.
“I think it is just putting your soul into a recipe. Have fun with it,
because most recipes are basically a guide. Don’t feel like if that
recipe says basil and you don’t have basil [that you can’t make that
dish], you should be able to make simple substitutions. Create your own
recipes from the recipe that you are using,” she says.
Whether you are preparing skillet cabbage or baking lemonade cake, the
recipes in Lyons’ new book are easy to follow, even for a novice cook. -adrienne gadling
