photo by steed media service

Lindsey Williams will be the first to tell you that he’s an “addict.”

“There’s alcoholics and there’s drug addicts and then there’s people like us,” says Lindsey Williams, a former record executive and grandson of Harlem’s “Queen of Soul Food,” Sylvia Woods. “People like me are food addicts and we’re addicted to food,” he says.

Williams’ drug of choice was his grandmother’s world-famous soul food and at one point he tipped the scale at 400 pounds. “Getting [into] a plane seat can really embarrass the hell out [of] you,” he says. Needless to say, his life needed to change drastically.

Having created his own brand of healthy cooking, Williams trimmed down to half his weight and is now promoting a book of over 100 of his recipes entitled, Neo Soul: Taking Soul Food to a Whole ‘Nutha Level. With an offering of healthier methods to create traditional soul food dishes, Neo Soul encourages readers to be more health-conscious in their cooking strategies.
Williams hopes that soul food can make its way back from being considered, “spoon-bread” and gives his culinary creations delectable names like, Grandma’s Roasted Turkey, Lenzo’s Trout Stuffed with Collard Greens and Neo Sweet Potatoe Pie.

“I just wanted to educate parents that you could actually continue feeding your kids the food you were brought up on and if you want them to eat it the healthy way, you can,” he says. “I know that [soul food] was extremely unhealthy for us, but if you just change the food process and the procedures and the methods on how to cook it, but still keep the same ingredients ... and keep the good taste, it will come out well.” –gavin philip godfrey

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