Angelish Wilson

Chef-owner, Wilson’s Soul Food
Athens, Georgia

In 1981, when she was twenty-nine years old, chef Angelish

Wilson offered to help her dad—a man who spent his life working

two jobs, building railroads and cutting hair—fulfill his dream of

opening a restaurant. “Daddy loved to cook and have gatherings,”

she tells me at a table in that very same restaurant, thirty years

later. “We already cooked big at home. We just had to add a little

more.”

Cooking big, it turns out, isn’t just Wilson’s business

philosophy, it’s her life philosophy. After she and her brother

Homer took over the business in 1992, Wilson let go of her dream

of becoming a nurse and embraced her role as a leader and a feeder

of her community here in Athens, Georgia. (She’s prominently

featured on the Web site of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an

organization that celebrates the diverse food cultures of the South

and that honored Wilson in 2006.) “A lot of students come here

from UGA,” says Wilson as she begins prepping her famous fried

chicken. “They all call me Mamma.”

One look at the steam table, and you can see why so many

flock here to fill their bellies. Compartments overflow with collard

greens, macaroni and cheese, squash casserole, fresh corn, and