ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Grandma’s hands, they hold the key to centuries of knowledge in a family, mainly centered around food.
“If you show me where people cook, I can tell you a lot about them,” says Craig Sewell.
Craig Sewell set out to share the power that comes from cooking with grandmothers.
One of them is Mary Louise Booth-Webb.
Webb will be 100 years old this summer.
She grew up in her grandparents care and learned many recipes from her grandmother.
“So I made crackling bread, and we used the pork fat for it, only the fat, and then you use the fat and then you render the lard," says Mary Louise Booth-Webb.
She says it's important for her to pass on more than just recipes but also family heritage to her grandchildren.
“I think later on, when the kids grow up, the stories I’ve told them I think it's going to be important for them,” says Mary Louise Booth-Webb.
LaWann Stribling, who is also in the documentary, tells me her grandmother passed in 2021, just before they began filming.
“Just the fact that I can share my grandmother's story and just the legacy of how I got to be where I am, it's important for that story to be told," says LaWann Stribling.
She says her grandmother's cooking led to her starting her own bakery.
"The reason I do what I do in the kitchen is because of my grandmother," she says.
Cooking together made their relationship stronger and made her want to strengthen the bond with her family.
“The reason why we’re so lost is because we don’t have those connections, and it's important for us to find a way to get back to it," says LaWann Stribling.
Sewell says those reasons are exactly why he created this documentary.
"Maybe think about what she taught you. Maybe think about the recipes that she made with you. That works for a lot of people, and if you don’t have that, start it," says Sewell.
Craig Sewell says he will showcase the film at upcoming film festivals, then eventually release it to the public online.
