Cooking Up Joy with Nicole Taylor

The author of Watermelon & Red Birds on the first page she reads in every cookbook and the satisfaction found in opening a door for other writers.

If you’re reading this the day I’m sending it, in the United States it’s Juneteenth, a holiday that marks the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were (belatedly) informed by Union soldiers that they had been emancipated. As soon as the following June 19th, communities began marking the day with celebrations.

To me, Juneteenth is the most American of holidays. Traditionally, we have been a people that revere freedom, self-determination, and liberty. I can’t think of a more important year to celebrate those values than this one.

That’s why I’m so happy to have Nicole Taylor, author of Watermelon & Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations (Bookshop/Amazon), here for this week’s chat. The book was released in May 2022, less than a year after Juneteenth became a national holiday (also belatedly). In the introduction she writes, “The title combines a native-born African fruit—watermelon—with the African American and Native American adage that red birds flying in sight are ancestors returning to spread beautiful luck.”

The recipes transcend traditional “Southern” food or soul food; they’re fresh, modern, and picnic, potluck, and cookout-ready. Chapters include “Red Drinks” (essential on Juneteenth), “Potato, Green, & Fruit Salads,” and “Cake! Cake! Cake! (And a Couple of Pies).”

In the introduction, Taylor writes lovingly about her cookbook collection:

My bedroom has a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf filled with titles written by Black authors. An Edna Lewis cookbook stack with all first editions and a Dr. Jessica B. Harris book tower with a signed High on the Hog on top, and then a barbecue pile with Bobby Seale, Adrian Miller, Al Roker, and Rodney Scott. I’ve never been more elated about the wealth of authors telling their families’ stories, sharing recipes from their travels in Paris, or being happily single (Klancy Miller’s Cooking Solo and Vallery Lomas’s Life Is What You Bake It).

My cookbooks follow me from the couch to the nightstand, desk, and kitchen at different times of the year. One day, I might be reading them. Another day, I might be cooking from them. On still another, I might be thumbing through their pages for inspiration. Bryant Terry’s Black Food and Shannon Mustipher’s Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails have dog-eared recipes, and Toni Tipton-Martin’s The Jemima Code is sitting pretty.

No surprise—I love this ode to cookbooks. And I was moved by this line, also in the introduction: “Black joy often emanates from Black sorrow, and so it has been with that small Texas tendril of freedom, which has continued to spread and strengthen.”

Nicole is also the author of Up South (Bookshop/Amazon) and is currently working on The Maroon House, a cookbook centered around entertaining and gatherings. Thanks for chatting Nicole!

Photo: Kaylin James

The Cookbookery Q&A with Nicole Taylor

About how many cookbooks do you own?

NT: Five hundred or so. I have entire collections of food magazines too, like Everyday Food from Martha Stewart, the cute micro magazine from the early 2000s.

How do you organize them?

NT: A few years ago, an interior designer suggested that I organize my cookbooks and other books by color. I admire bookshelves with that aesthetic, but I reference titles too often to maintain that scheme. All my books are organized loosely by subject. I have a library with all Black titles, from Coretta Scott King's My Life with Martin Luther King to Bridgett Davis's The World According to Fannie Davis. Then, I have a shared section with my husband, which is exclusively art books or coffee table titles. The other major subjects are Southern, Drinks, New York, Baking, and Vegetable Forward.

What would you say to someone who questions why cookbooks still matter in our "digital age"?

NT: I freelance for Resy and was featured in the documentary Finding Edna Lewis, executive-produced by Deb Freeman. To prepare for my film interview, I pulled all my Edna Lewis cookbooks to refresh my memory. When I write about restaurants, I like to look back at New York centric titles like Brooklyn Bar Bites (Bookshop/Amazon) and Where Chefs Eat (Bookshop/Amazon) to get my juices flowing about a particular time in the New York food scene. When I prepare to write a cookbook, I try to pull a stack of cookbooks for design and organizational inspiration.

Tell me how Watermelon & Red Birds came to be.

NT: The short version is that there have been Juneteenth celebrations in other aspects of my work, and an editor and my previous agent nudged me to tell the Juneteenth and food stories in a bigger way. In the summer of 2020, I wrote a piece for The New York Times titled "A Juneteenth of Joy and Resistance," and a handful of publishers reached out about a Juneteenth cookbook. I was more than halfway done with the book proposal by this point and sold the project quickly. The path to publication was a winding one due to the pandemic, uprisings, and general fatigue. Still, I managed to publish the first cookbook dedicated to the Juneteenth holiday.

What's one thing you wish were different about the book?

NT: I wish I had more time to tweak headnotes and recipes. Simon & Schuster was determined to be the first to market with a Juneteenth cookbook.

What are you most proud of when it comes to Watermelon & Red Birds?

NT: I'm most proud that it’s a comp for a plethora of Juneteenth cookbooks to come. I cracked open the door for an entire category of celebration cookbooks. I'm proud that the cookbook pushed my creativity and sharpened my skills in project management.

What kind of cookbook reader/user are you?

NT: Reading the acknowledgments first is something I always do. It tells me about the people's support systems and all the artists who contributed to the project, and then I dive in. Watermelon & Red Birds has the acknowledgments in the front matter.

What do you find boring in a cookbook?

NT: Most headnotes in modern cookbooks are a snooze fest.

What's a cookbook that you think didn't get enough attention?

NT: Von Diaz’s Islas (Bookshop/Amazon). Von is a dear friend and colleague who delves deeply into research and approaches her work with care and scholarship. I love hanging out in the kitchen with Von; we've made more than a handful of meals together.

Tell us more about your next book The Maroon House.

NT: My manuscript is due in a few weeks. I'm excited to give readers a peek into my world of entertaining and gathering.The cookbook is aspirational, weaving in my evolving style and what it looks like to build a modern home rooted in a reverence for Black culture.

How are you planning to celebrate Juneteenth this year?

NT: On June 19, I'll be recovering from a slate of events. Nowadays, I spend the morning taking it easy and doing nothing. Then, I'll host a happy hour and have a slice of strawberry cake.

Interview has been lightly edited. If you purchase a book through one of these links, I may receive a small commission.

More to Nibble On

• I have been cooking a LOT this week, testing recipes from more books as I choose my “Best Cookbooks of 2025 (So Far)” for REAL SIMPLE. The list will be up soon; in the meantime, here’s last year’s!

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  Druckman rexamines branded cookbooks (originally published in the Wall Street Journal)

• I got a sneak peek at the upcoming The King Cookbook by

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  , Jess Shadbolt, and Annie Shi (pub date: Nov. 4, 2025). My natural inclination is to be wary of restaurant cookbooks, but this book looks as lovely, simple, and sophisticated as King itself.

• Congratulations to all the James Beard nominees and winners!

• NYT Bestsellers: Yes, again. At #6

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