Maya Angelou is a poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she has also written five poetry collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved and Shaker, Why Don't You Sing?, as well as the celebrated poem "On the Pulse of Morning," which she read at the inauguration of President William Jefferson Clinton, and "A Brave and Startling Truth," written at the request of the United Nations and read at its fiftieth anniversary. She lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

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 poignant-and 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 Southerner, 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 eclairs, 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.