LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Soul food takes its origins mostly from the South.
Many popular recipes date back decades ago.
Carolyn L. Hampton-Gray began cooking when she was just 6 years old.
Wednesday, she and her husband own Chef Carol's Southern Kitchen in the valley.
"Southern cooking originated way back from the ancestors and then moved into the South. That's how we shared. It's all we had back then," chef Carol said.
During the antebellum period, enslaved African people were given scraps that were low in quality and nutrition.
Still, enslaved people found ways to preserve their homeland traditions and adapt recipes that would pass over to generations.
Over time those recipes would become soul food staples.
The term "soul food" didn't become popular until the 1960s during the rise of many Black Civil Rights movements.
Chef Carol's Southern Kitchen is located at 1100 N. Martin Luther King Blvd.
