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If you’re looking for the best Southern, Cajun, Lowcountry and soul food recipes, you’ve come to the right place.

Chef Rick is serving up a delicious blend of Cajun, Creole, and Southern home cooking, along with a touch of Soul food and some great dishes from the South Carolina Lowcountry. You’ll find cooking tips, advice on choosing and using cookware, and much more. Don’t forget the recipe page where you’ll find delicious main dishes, Cajun favorites, and wonderful cakes and pies. If you love Southern cooking, you’ll want to add this page to your favorites.

Who is this guy?

My name is Rick McDaniel and I have the best job in the world. I’m a food historian and writer. I get to spend every day thinking about, writing about, and cooking Southern food! I learned Southern cooking from four generations of cooks in my family, and a friend from Charleston, SC taught me the wonders of Low country cuisine, the delicious blend of seafood and rice from the South Carolina tidal basin.

Even though I’m a native North Carolinian, I’ve always had a special love in my heart for the people and food of Louisiana. Cajun and Creole cooking is one of my specialties, and you’ll find lots of good recipes with a Louisiana flavor in the recipe section.

I love the great variety of food found in my native South — everything from German cuisine to Cajun and Creole to the wonderful spices of Afro - Caribbean cooking .

I have spent time in restaurant kitchens as both chef and helper, including a stint in kitchen hell — cooking pizza eight hours a day while a nearby jukebox blared the Bee Gees and Donna Summer. Yes, that’s how I spend the summer of 1978. I even had to wear a polyester apron! I’ve also cooked in one restaurant where no one I knew made enough money to eat there.

I launched chefrick.com in 1998 as a way to spread my love of Southern cooking and make huge amounts of friends and money. So far, my love for cooking is doing quite well, I have lots of new friends, and I’ve made just enough cash to afford those Gin Su knives I’ve always wanted.