Welcome to Cooking with Virginia!
Here you will find delicious and doable, seasonal, chef-driven recipes for home cooks along with tips, techniques, and stories. And, given Virginia’s health journey and 65# weight loss, the recipes are not only good — they are good for you, too!
Each post features mouth-watering food photography, easy-to-follow instructions, and helpful hints for well-tested recipes from Southern chef, Food Network Kitchen Instructor, and James Beard award-winning cookbook author Virginia Willis.
You’ll also find Virginia’s signature stories chronicling formational childhood experiences gained baking in her grandmother’s and mother’s kitchen, her extensive professional experience from working in patisserie in a Michelin-starred restaurant, to the hot lights of food television, and her culinary centric far-flung travels. The recipes build on this practical knowledge and are written so that the reader feels that Virginia is by their side in the kitchen, as she walks the reader through surefire recipes that work every time. The recipes are rigorously tested and are essential, foolproof dishes you actually want to make and eat!
Bon Appétit, Y’all!
Virginia Willis


Chocolate Peanut Butter Soft Serve Frozen Dessert
Believe it or not, I am hesitant to call this decadent bowl of delicious dessert chocolate ice cream. It looks like chocolate ice cream, scoops






The Time is Always Right to Do What is Right
I read earlier this week that 4 of the 5 counties in the US with the highest death rates per capita due to Covid-19 are






Sheet Pan Supper: Panko Crusted Fish Filet with Asparagus and Tomatoes
Who doesn’t love a sheet pan supper? One pan and you’re good to go. It’s an easy and healthy meal that your family is certain






How to Plan the Safe and Perfect Picnic
As a kid, my Southern summers were spent fishing at our family pond and swimming in the ocean, pool, or lake and catching fireflies with






Baked Risotto
Classic Italian risotto is creamy and comforting. Tender rice flavored with wine and nutty-rich Parmesan cheese and sweet butter. Do you love risotto, but






Mama, Faith, and her Classic Poundcake
Mama, it’s a word that is veritably primal, one of the very first words tiny human baby mouths and brains can conjure. I am a






Cornmeal Cake with Strawberries and Vanilla Cream
Cornmeal Cake is somewhere between a cobbler and cake. Unlike a cobbler, the fruit is served on the side. And, unlike most cakes, the batter






Steel Magnolias Armadillo Butt Cupcakes
A couple of weeks ago cohosted the Sunday afternoon matinee of Steel Magnolias! (I also shared a recipe for a shrub I call “The Shelby.”)






Golden Vidalia Onion Cheesy Pull-Apart Biscuits
Who doesn’t love Vidalia onions!? Georgia grown Vidalia onions are America’s favorite and perhaps its most well-known sweet onion. Vidalia onions are my absolute go-to.






Strawberry Shrub aka “The Shelby”
Are you concerned your liver might cry uncle before lockdown ends? Need an NA alternative? Or, you need to spritz up your afternoon cocktail? Check