Sheila Ferguson (1947-present) is a star of stage and screen who also made her mark on the culinary world. What started as a project to preserve recipes for her young daughters evolved into a cookbook that captures the legacy of soul food in the Black community.
Sheila Ferguson (1947-present) is a star of stage and screen who also made her mark on the culinary world. What started as a project to preserve recipes for her young daughters evolved into a cookbook that captures the legacy of soul food in the Black community.
Food has been a unifier for millennia, not just gathering people together to share a meal, but acting as a warm introduction to new histories and traditions. This February on Womanica, we’re celebrating Tastemakers - the Black chefs, cooks, and food historians who created new foodways and preserved important culinary stories of the past. The impact of chefs like Pig Foot Mary, Mama Dip, and Georgia Gilmore stretch far beyond the culinary scene - uplifting their local communities and inspiring those who came after them.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, Abbey Delk, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
Follow Wonder Media Network:
Hello! I'm Chef Kia Damon. I've served as an executive chef and I was the first culinary director for Cherry Bombe Magazine. I'm the founder of Kia Feeds The People, and co-founder of Auxilio Space — two organizations focused on combating food apartheid. I’ll be your guest host for this month of Womanica.
This month, we're talking about Tastemakers. We're celebrating the Black chefs, cooks, and food historians who created new foodways and preserved important culinary stories of the past.
Today, we’re talking about a star of stage and screen who also made her mark on the culinary world. What started as a project to preserve recipes for her young daughters evolved into a cookbook that captures the legacy of soul food in the Black community.
Please meet Sheila Ferguson.
Sheila was born in Philadelphia on October 8, 1947. From a young age, she was drawn to a life on the stage. As a teenager, she often listened to Nancy Wilson records when she was home alone and sang along at the top of her lungs. One of her high school teachers introduced her to Richard Barrett, a songwriter, producer and talent manager. He took Sheila on as a solo artist while she was still a student, and she started releasing music through Swan Records.
Richard had one other act at the time — a trio of girl singers called “The Three Degrees.” Sheila befriended the group, and the two acts frequently recorded together, singing background vocals on each other’s songs. Sheila even filled in when one of the girls was too sick to perform. When one of The Three Degrees left the group to get married and start a family, Sheila became a permanent member.
Sheila performed with The Three Degrees for two decades. They toured across the country, booking gigs at renowned venues like the Copacabana in New York City and the Eden Roc in Miami. The group also made their way to Hollywood in the early 1970s. They sang on the sitcom “Sanford & Son” and appeared in the Oscar-winning film “The French Connection.” In 1973, they found global success with their chart-topping single “When Will I See You Again?”
However, Sheila’s time with The Three Degrees would soon come to a close. Her relationship with their manager Richard was fraught. They had been romantically involved in the past, and Sheila later accused him of emotional degradation and abuse. She also revealed that she struggled with suicidal thoughts throughout her singing career. In 1980, she married a British businessman named Chris Robinson. A few years later, Sheila permanently left the group to focus on raising their twin daughters.
The family settled in London. But Sheila worried about raising two young Black girls in England, where they were largely divorced from their cultural roots. She also wasn’t thrilled with the food in Britain. After watching the nanny feed her daughters a steady diet of fried fish and chips, Sheila stepped in. She wanted to share the rich culinary heritage of soul food with her daughters and give them an appreciation for the dishes she grew up eating at family reunions and rent parties.
Sheila was still working as a solo artist but rearranged her work schedule to leave more time for preparing family meals. She wrote, “It was so delightful to watch my lovely daughters, who are growing up to be proper little English ladies indeed, dunking their biscuits into gravy and dousing their sausages with maple syrup.”
Sheila felt her daughters were finally connecting to Black American culture in a new and profound way. This project eventually evolved into an exploration of the importance of soul food in the Black community. Soon, Sheila was working on a cookbook. She wanted it to be a gift to her daughters. This way, they’d always have access to the recipes and cooking tips that tied them to their heritage.
Sheila published “Soul Food: Classic Cuisine from the Deep South” in 1989. The book is not merely a list of recipes. She traces the historical roots of soul food in the Black community — from the meals enslaved people in the American South made from their weekly rations to the favorite dishes of Black restaurant patrons in Harlem.
Sheila also includes many family photos in between recipe entries, fondly recalling the favorite dishes and traditions she enjoyed in childhood. In her chapter on “Fine Feathered Fowl,” Sheila remembers, “My mom always joked that she only married Dad for his culinary skills frying chicken and fish.” A reader gets to know not only the recipes but also the people and family legends that shaped Sheila’s life.
On the whole, Sheila’s cookbook was a love letter to the tradition of soul food. For Sheila, the culinary tradition is almost a spiritual experience. As she writes in the introduction to her book, “When you taste good soul food then it’ll take ahold of your soul and hang your unsuspecting innards out to dry.”.
Today, Sheila still lives in the United Kingdom and remains active as a singer and actress. Most recently, she starred as prison warden Mama Morton in a touring production of “Chicago” in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Sheila’s cookbook remains a beloved text for many lovers of good soul food.
All month, we’re talking about tastemakers. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan, for having me as a guest host.
Talk to you tomorrow!