Photos: Facebook
CHAPEL HILL, NC — [January 14] — Spring Council, youngest daughter of the late Mildred “Mama Dip” Council and recipient of the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Lifetime Achievement Award, will publish her debut cookbook Southern Roots: Recipes and Stories from Mama Dip’s Daughter (Countryman Press, an imprint of W.W. Norton & Company) in February 2026.
Spring’s restaurant legacy began at her grandfather’s Bill’s Bar-B-Q, where she assembled takeout boxes as a child, and continued through decades of working alongside her mother and siblings at Mama Dip’s Kitchen, which Mildred Council opened in Chapel Hill in 1976 with $64. What started as a small restaurant became a cultural landmark, and Mama Dip became a published cookbook author whose titles became bestsellers.
Southern Roots features 100 recipes that showcase both traditional Southern cooking and Spring’s own creative contributions—like her Smothered Fried Chicken with Andouille Sausage and Goat Cheese Pound Cake—alongside classic dishes like Pimento Cheese Biscuits. Each recipe is tied to memories of family, community, and the life’s work Spring built in her mother’s kitchen.
“My deepest inspiration for Southern Roots comes from wanting to share my stories and recipes while honoring my mother’s legacy,” says Spring Council. “As I sat down to write about each dish, memories of the people and places that influenced my recipes just flooded my mind. Mama taught me about authenticity in cooking—to use the best ingredients, use all of my senses during food preparation, and never serve someone food that you would not eat yourself.”
Spring chronicles her experience growing up Black in the Jim Crow South with clear-eyed honesty, learning to cook through intentional teaching at her mother’s side—using all five senses, understanding ingredients, and absorbing her mother’s creative resilience and resourcefulness. The book depicts a family’s dedication: children working before school, a mother’s problem-solving genius, and the commitment that built a community institution.
On receiving the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Lifetime Achievement Award with her sisters, Spring reflects: “My sisters and I were deeply honored to receive this prestigious award. More than anything, it’s a tribute to our mother, beside whom we have worked for a lifetime. This award truly honors her pioneering work and the enduring foundation she laid.”
The multigenerational legacy continues with Spring’s daughter, owner of Tonya’s Cookies, which caught Oprah’s attention, and her niece Erika Council’s Bomb Biscuit Co. in Atlanta. “Black women have always been the heart and soul, the ‘keepers of the Southern kitchen,’ laying the foundation for what Southern food is today,” Spring notes. “For our family, this legacy is also deeply tied to entrepreneurship.”
Southern Roots reflects Spring’s passion for gracious Southern hospitality. “Readers can look forward to stories that bring these dishes to life—like what it was like spending time in my mother’s kitchens and how I learned to cook by oral tradition, which is such a vital part of our heritage,” Spring explains. The book features photography of vintage tableware, thoughtfully set tables, and the beauty of intentional entertaining—making guests feel honored and welcomed.
More than a tribute to Mama Dip’s impact, Southern Roots is Spring’s story of learning to make a living through food and building her life’s work alongside her mother’s legacy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Spring Council is the youngest daughter of the late Mildred “Mama Dip” Council and, along with her sisters, recipient of the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She began her restaurant career at her grandfather’s Bill’s Bar-B-Q and spent decades working at Mama Dip’s Kitchen, learning to cook through intentional teaching and oral tradition at her mother’s side—using all five senses, no timers, just aroma and instinct. Spring serves on the planning committee for the Mildred Council Annual Community Dinner and is active in the Chapel Hill Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International. She is a passionate collector of vintage tableware and practitioner of gracious Southern hospitality. Southern Roots is her first book.
