Princess Pamela's Soul Food Cookbook

New York: New American Library/Signet, 1969. Mass market paperback (18 x 10.5 cm.), [20], 21-248 pages. Index. Illustrated. FIRST EDITION, stated first printing; issued as a mass market paperback only. A cookbook from the chef and owner of one of Craig Claiborne's favorite "soul food spots", Princess Pamela's Little Kitchen. The author, Princess Pamela Strobel, is never identified by her full name, only as Princess Pamela, but the dedication, a poem to the author's mother, Beauty Strobel, allows the reader to complete the name. Chapters include: Meats complete: 'n other soul treats, Sweet garden greens: roots 'n shoots, Grits, 'taters, rice, 'n mush, Batter 'n butter, and Soulful goodies. Facing each recipe is a "sage saying" of Princess Pamela. The original restaurant, The Little Kitchen, was founded in the 1960s on East 10th Street in the East Village. It later moved to East 1st Street, just off Houston, and was renamed Princess' Southern Touch. The food found its origins in South Carolina, and was in great part based on the cooking of Pamela's mother, Beauty Strobel, who served as a pastry cook in Spartansburg. The introduction to a new edition (2021), edited by Matt and Ted Lee, states: "Princess Pamela ruled a small realm, but her powers ranged far and wide. Her speakeasy-style restaurant in Manhattan was for three decades a hip salon, with regulars from Andy Warhol to Diana Ross. Her iconic Southern dishes influenced chefs nationwide, and her cookbook became a bible for a generation who yearned for the home cooking left behind in the Great Migration. One of the earliest books to coin soul food, this touchstone of African-American cuisine fell out of print more than forty years ago." Internally clean and sound. In publisher's original black and brown printed tan wrappers; spine with some light creasing. A very near fine copy of a book often encountered in poor condition. Scarce. [OCLC locates three copies; not in Tipton-Martin].