ORAL HISTORY

Joe Randall

Chef Joe Randall’s Cooking School

A native of Pennsylvania, Joe Randall realized while stationed in Albany, Georgia, in 1963, that there was something special about Southern food. After leaving the Air Force, Randall spent much of the 1960s working in restaurants. Since then, Randall has served as executive chef at the Cloister Restaurant in Buffalo, New York, and the Fishmarket in Baltimore.

Along with Toni Tipton-Martin, he is the author of the A Taste of Heritage Cookbook, an homage to African American culinary achievement. He has served as faculty at four schools, including the Savannah College of Art and Design. In 2000 he opened Chef Joe Randall’s Cooking School in Savannah, devoted to the preaching the “gospel of authentic Southern cuisine to all comers.”