Mama Louise Hudson of H & H Restaurant
Interviewer: This is Eva, Kaitlin, Allison, Kyle and Carrie and we’re here with Mama Louise at H & H Restaurant in Macon, Georgia, and today is the 20th of March 2009. We are talking to Mama Louise about her work as a foodways practitioner in Macon.
And so, Mama Louise, will you please tell us your name and current occupation?
Mama Louise Hudson: My name is Louise Hudson. I was born in Youngstown, Ohio. And my mother and my daddy we moved back here. They were from Warrenton, GA, and that’s were I was raised, Warrenton, GA. And I moved to Macon in 19… well, I’ve been in Macon about 56 years, it might’ve been a little longer than that. And I worked in a restaurant. And I just watched them and see how they cooked and see what they did. And I said, “well, if I can work for someone else, I can work for myself.” And I’ll never forget this little old lady, she was in this little restaurant just one little building, she got tired of it, and so she said--we were good friends--and so she says “Louise, I’m gonna let you have this, cuz I’m gettin’ too tired for this, I’m gettin’ too old.” So I said “ok” and so I just took over. In 1950… in 1964 I think. And I worked in there about a year or two, and another little building across the street over there, at 18 Forsyth Street, I moved in there and there was a little kitchen and one little dining room. That was in 1965. And I just liked it so I just kept doin’ it.
Interviewer: Was it the same? Was it H & H Restaurant? Did it have the same name?
Mama Louise Hudson: The one across the street was the same name, H & H, but the other one was D & L, the first one I went to. I named the one across the street over by the med center, and I moved over there. And in 1965 I met the Allman Brothers. They came in one day, and they said they were hungry. And they said, “Dickey, tell Ber over, ask that lady for something to eat.” Ber said, “I don’t know nothin’ about that lady. I ain’t gonna ask her for nothing to eat.” So Ber said, “You ask her.” And Dickey said the same thing, “I don’t know nothing about that lady, I ain’t gonna ask her for nothing to eat.” So they all went out for a while and made up their minds, and they came back. They looked skinny then. So they came back, and asked me, “What’s your name?” So I told them my name. I said Mama Louise Hudson. Well they just said, “Will you fix us two plates. We’re going on a tour, and we’ll pay you when we get back.” So they went on their tour and stayed a week or two, and they came back, and they paid me.
Interviewer: You must be a very trusting lady?
Mama Louise Hudson: Yeah, I trusted them. I didn’t know nothing about them. They went off, and they came back, and they paid me, so. They wanted two whole plates, but there were five of them. So I fixed all of them a plate. So they ate, and they said, “Well, we’ll pay you when we get back.” I told them that was ok. But they did. And when they go off and come back they’d pay. They’d go off again, and come back, and they would pay me. If they got to play sometimes, they would pay. Sometimes they wouldn’t, but I didn’t worry about it. And so I guess, they just started enjoying it. They liked the food and they ate it.
Interviewer: Mama Louise, Who taught you to cook? Was it the people at the restaurant you worked at before?
Mama Louise Hudson: Well, I know how to cook because I was from the country with my grandparents. I learned how to…You know you do things different outside of here.
Interviewer: Do you use recipes when you cook here?
Mama Louise Hudson: No darlin’, no recipes. I just do it. My mind tells me and that’s what I do. I can’t stand those recipes. Are you gonna be a cook one day?
Interviewer: Well, my grandmother was never a good cook, but I’m learning. I have to use recipes. I don’t have a natural knack for it, but I’m learning.
Mama Louise Hudson: Well, its fun once you get to learning. Its fun to me, and I just enjoy it.
Interviewer: What’s your favorite thing to make?
Mama Louise Hudson: What is my favorite thing to cook?
Interviewer: Mm-hmm…
Mama Louise Hudson: Collard greens, black eyed peas, corn…I can cook all things. And dessert is black pea cobbler, apple cobbler, potato pie.
Interviewer: I had some of your potato pie, and it’s great.
Mama Louise Hudson: Thank you, darlin’. Glad you enjoyed it
Interviewer: What’s your favorite food to eat?
Mama Louise Hudson: My favorite thing to eat? Well I’m not choicy. If I’m hungry, I can just eat.
Interviewer: What was that?
Mama Louise Hudson: When I’m hungry, it doesn’t matter what I eat.
Interviewer: Yeah? [laughter] Well, how has your business changed? Kind of?
Mama Louise Hudson: Hmmm?
Interviewer: I said has your business changed a lot since you opened it?
Mama Louise Hudson: Well, some time it changes, but we don’t. We don’t look for it to be the same all the time. I enjoy it. My brothers and they come around with all their friends. I just enjoyed it.
Interviewer: Well, what are some of your favorite memories of working in the restaurant and things like that? I mean is there something that stands out to you that you really?
Mama Louise Hudson: Well, I just love people. I just like talkin’ to different people. That way you get to knowin’ things. Only thing you ever, only time you ever learn something about them, you have to ask people. I just enjoy them. And it seems like they enjoy me pretty good too. [laughter] And when they havin’ something, they always invite me, and I enjoy it. I just feel like I’m home when I’m with them. So they told me they wanted me to feel like that so they feel like that about me so I just feel like I’m their mother and everything. I enjoy them.
Interviewer: What time in the morning do you come to work and what time do you leave?
Mama Louise Hudson: I get here ‘bout quarter to six, and I leave at four.
Interviewer: My goodness, that’s a long day!
Mama Louise Hudson: I used to do it from four ‘til … ‘til eleven at night.
Interviewer: Four in the morning ‘til eleven at night?
Mama Louise Hudson: Yeah! I used to get up at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning. I just… I don’t know. Oh, it don’t bother me.
Interviewer: Really? I need my sleep! [laughter]
Mama Louise Hudson: Nah, it doesn’t bother me though. I enjoy it. You just have to want to do these things for things to work out for you. That’s all.
Interviewer: What does H & H stand for?
Mama Louise Hudson: H & H? H & H stands for, “If you miss Heaven, you will die and go to Hell.” [laughter] No, my mother was a Hill, and I’m a Hudson. I got married to a Hudson, so Hill and Hudson.
Interviewer: I have a question about your sign. The mushroom on your sign, did you put that there because of the mushroom on the brick outside or vice versa?
Mama Louise Hudson: Well, that’s what they… That’s what the [Allman] Brothers like. Mushrooms. [laughter] So, I had to put that one there, too. The one in the window, they wanted to put that one up there.
Interviewer: Well, what do you think the future for H & H holds? What do you think your future holds in cooking here?
Mama Louise Hudson: Well, a lot of remembering there for one thing. There’s a lot I done been through with being here and with cooking and with different people. But, I enjoy it all. I just enjoy people.
Interviewer: Do you have a lot of regular customers that come in everyday?
Mama Louise Hudson: Yeah.
Interviewer: Now have you seen generations of families come through?
Mama Louise Hudson: That’s right. There’s a young lady who come here saying, “I been bringin’ my baby ever since she was just like this, and she a big girl.” Oh yeah, mm-hmm.
Interviewer: Well, is there any other story that you’d like to tell that is really important about your love for food or for serving people food, specifically southern food? Because that’s what our class is about, Southern Foodways. Do you want to say anything about what you think southern food is or what makes food “southern”?
Mama Louise Hudson: Well, I think southern food is the best thing for your health and your life. Eat your vegetables. That is good for your health. And I just like doing that because I was raised up on collard greens, black eyed peas, potatoes, string beans, because we raised that in the fields.
Interviewer: Was it different when you started using canned vegetables?
Mama Louise Hudson: I don’t use canned vegetables.
Interviewer: You don’t? Do you use fresh?
Mama Louise Hudson: No, frozen.
Interviewer: Do you get your vegetables from farmers around Macon?
Mama Louise Hudson: That’s right. I don’t care for canned vegetables because you use the canned vegetables you got to know what you’re doing. A lot of people use that canned vegetables, and you can tell they’re canned because they don’t know what they’re doing. But you’re supposed to pour that water off that and then cook it for awhile, let it simmer for awhile, then pour that off there. Then put your seasoning in there and that what make it, you can’t tell whether it fresh or canned.
Interviewer: Do you have any secret recipes?
Mama Louise Hudson: No, but I know some that I don’t never cook it down here, but I cook it at home. That casseroles and stuff like that. I know a lot of them, but I just don’t, never cook it down here.
Interviewer: Well, how did you decide on your menu that you have now, and do you change it periodically, or is it just the same?
Mama Louise Hudson: The same, mm-hmm.
Interviewer: Do you just put on the menu what you like the best?
Mama Louise Hudson: That’s right.
Interviewer: That’s good.
Mama Louise Hudson: Do y’all enjoy it?
Interviewer: We like it! My brother came to visit Macon, and I brought him here and he loved it – he wants to come back.
Mama Louise Hudson: Well, bring him back then
Interviewer: I will, I will. This is his favorite. He said it was the best southern food he’s ever had.
Mama Louise Hudson: Alright, glad he enjoyed.
Interviewer: What was it like when Oprah came to visit you?
Mama Louise Hudson: Well, it was kind of hard to tell because you couldn’t hardly get in here. But she was nice, very nice.
Interviewer: Had she heard about you around Macon, or nationally?
Mama Louise Hudson: She said she had heard about me, we talked, and she was real nice.
Interviewer: Do you guys have any more questions? Thank you for your time.
Mama Louise Hudson: You’re welcome, darlin. Oh you know you’re all welcome.
Interviewer: Oh we’ll be back!
Mama Louise Hudson: And I know one day, yeah y’all gonna bring me a dish.
Interviewer: Oh you want us to bring you food?
Mama Louise Hudson: Sure!
Interviewer: After our final for a class we’re having a bar-b-q.
Mama Louise Hudson: Sho ‘nuff. Alright, now one day when y’all cook something good now y’all bring it on to me now, ya hear?
Interviewer: Ok. Will you tell us what you think about it honestly? You have to give us a real, you know, a real cook’s kind of critique of our food.
Mama Louise Hudson: Aw, you can do it. You look like you can do it. [laughter]
Interviewer: I have a question. I’ve started making buttermilk biscuits at home from scratch. With your biscuits do you use buttermilk, and when you make them do you use any kind of baking powder or baking soda?
Mama Louise Hudson: Baking powder.
Interviewer: Baking powder? How much, about like, half a teaspoon?
Mama Louise Hudson: With all these biscuits I have you better not come in here with no teaspoons. [laughter]
Interviewer: Because I can never get them right.
Mama Louise Hudson: I had to cook four or five and then some.
Interviewer: So you just use, like, because I use Crisco, flower, baking flour, um, or baking powder, and then buttermilk. And I always, and I can’t get it perfect yet, and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong so I thought I could ask you.
Mama Louise Hudson: What, you makin’ it with a spoon?
Interviewer: Yeah.
Mama Louise Hudson: Well, you got to use those hands. Get that stuff and mess it up that good.
Interviewer: That’s true, because I serve it with two…
Mama Louise Hudson: Cause you know, you can put too much baking powder.
Interviewer: Yeah. Ok, I’ll try and make some, and if I make a perfect batch, I’ll bring it to you.
Mama Louise Hudson: Well, you do that. I hope you do! If you do that, that’ll be your job. Every afternoon you gonna have to come down here and make some biscuits. [laugher]
Interviewer: Deal.
Mama Louise Hudson: I know that’s right. That will be real nice.
Interviewer: Okay! Well, do you make biscuits every afternoon for the next morning?
Mama Louise Hudson: Yes, I have to before I go.
Interviewer: How many do you make?
Mama Louise Hudson: I make about three or four pans, and a pan hold about 40-48 biscuits in one pan.
Interviewer: Wow. Well, how much preparation do you have to do in the afternoon for the morning? Just biscuits and that kind of thing?
Mama Louise Hudson: That’s all, just the biscuits. And put them in the ‘frigerator, and then I gotta take ‘em out and put ‘em in the oven. That’s all. Now okay now, you start go home and make some, and when they start to turn out nice just bring me some.
Interviewer: I will. I’ll bring you my progress reports.
Mama Louise Hudson: Okay, you do that now.
Interviewer: You can give me a grade.
Mama Louise Hudson: Alright, I’ll sure do that. And tell you what you had wrong and had right.
Interviewer: I can do that.
Mama Louise Hudson: Okay.
Interviewer: Well, thank you so much. We really appreciate it.
Mama Louise Hudson: You’re welcome, darlin.’
Interviewer: We really appreciate it.
Mama Louise Hudson: Alright, y’all come back and see me now.
Interviewer: We will. Thank you.
Mama Louise Hudson: Uh huh.