Soul Woman

Don't ask if you've caught Delilah Winder in the middle of something — you have.

by A.D. Amorosi

Don't ask if you've caught Delilah Winder in the middle of something — you have.

Winder likes being caught in the middle — amidst family, friends, food and ideas. Cooking is the reason she ditched her employers at Colonial Penn Insurance in 1983. "That, and because it was so boring," she laughs. "I wanted to know the families I'd be cooking for. I wanted to prepare the next day's menu with fresh foods from the [Reading] Terminal, and start all over again."

Knowing who would eat her food figured prominently into Winder's decision to debut Everyday Soul at a ShopRite in the Germantown neighborhood where she grew up. The store is frequented by middle-class families, both black and white, and that's exactly who Winder sees scarfing down her Southern and Caribbean-inspired dishes.

What makes Winder's style so fun for foodies — both serious gourmands and book buyers — is her laid-back, happy-go-lucky approach to family-style comfort plates. We're talking curried goat, braised beef short ribs, blackberry pie, collard greens with cornbread and everything fried.

"Un-highfalutin" aptly describes Winder's style; She uses beer to steam blue crabs, makes meatloaf with shiitake mushrooms and slathers her famous mac 'n' cheese with Gruyere and Asiago. It's down-home with a twist. And a word to the health nuts shaking their heads over her generous use of lard — get over it. "Those meals were good enough for our parents," says Winder. "My grandparents lived to be 99 and 95. I'm 55, and not overweight. I eat this food, and always have."

While Everyday Soul covers the cross section of folks who frequent her diner-style nosheries and tonier restaubar, it all comes down to this: Everybody entertains, be it on fine china for swell pals or on paper plates for the fam. And many of us had an inspirational relative who set the table first. Winder, in fact, dedicated an entire section of her new book to her grandmother Catherine. "That's my favorite chapter, because it's about the love of preparing," she says. "I used to just watch her effortlessly and magically make a meal, and within two hours, fill a table with abundance and love."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

Book signing with Delilah Winder, Thu., Nov. 2, 5-7 p.m., ShopRite, 2385 Cheltenham Ave., 215-887-7300.