Start your day with down-home soul food

Phil Lempert TODAY Food Editor • Profile • E-mail

In this special weekly feature, “Today” food editor Phil Lempert brings you recipes “stolen” (with permission) from notable restaurants across America. See how much fun you can have (and money you can save) by cooking these dishes at home.

THIS WEEK: Louise's Salmon Breakfast Patties from chef Louise Holmes of Louise's restaurant in Atlanta.

Like last week's recipe, this one is stolen from Georgia. What a catch! Louise's Salmon Breakfast Patties come to us from a family-owned and operated soul food restaurant. The history of soul food is an oral one, with recipes passed down from generation to generation. So we are extremely lucky to get Louise Holmes to write down her recipe for us. On any given day, you’ll find at least one Holmes family member with a serving spoon in hand, waiting to heap more-than-filling portions onto a guest’s plate. These breakfast patties are very easy to make and taste absolutely delicious with sides of biscuits, grits and eggs. This is true comfort food straight from the heart. Thanks to our readers for the great recommendation!

Tammie Holmes

About the chef: Louise Holmes grew up in rural Georgia during the 1940s. Collard greens and black-eyed peas grew in her father’s vegetable garden. And in the kitchen, Holmes’s mother taught her how to create dozens of dishes without ever referring to a single recipe. Even then she dreamed of owning a restaurant. But when she was 21, she married a mechanic and started a family. So Holmes put her cooking skills to use in a school cafeteria and a hotel restaurant. After the birth of her seventh child, a daughter born with a muscle disorder, Holmes become a stay-at-home mom.

More than a decade passed before she decided to pursue her dream to make a living cooking. She opened Kayla’s Catering, named after her youngest daughter. But it wasn’t long before her older daughters laid the groundwork for their mother to open her own soul food restaurant. Louise's opened in 2005. “We’re in this together, as a family, and to see my dream of owning and running my own restaurant come true with them by my side, that’s really the dream come true,” Holmes says. Louise and her daughters, Charla and Tammie, own the cafeteria-style restaurant that features a rotating menu of traditional recipes that Holmes has been cooking for her nine children and husband for decades.

“People who come in and eat here say it reminds them of their grandma’s cooking, and that’s what keeps them coming back,” says Tammie. But the restaurant venture required some sacrifices. For the first time, Louise Holmes lives apart from her husband of 40 years. Her husband remains in Waynesboro, Ga., working for the same factory he’s been employed with for the last 43 years. Most days of the week, Louise Holmes stays with one of her daughters in Atlanta. On Sunday, the only day the restaurant is closed, Holmes and her husband go to church and spend time with each other.Louise's Salmon Breakfast Patties on Biscuits is served at Louise's for $2.40 while a Salmon Patty Breakfast goes for $5.45. This recipe creates six patties.

Only on TODAY.MSNBC.com! Food Editor Phil Lempert brings you the latest news and advice about shopping and cooking. LAST WEEK: Start your day with down-home soul food GO TO ALL FOOD WEDNESDAY COLUMNS

Louise's
428 Ponce de Leon Ave.
Atlanta, Georgia
404-817-9513

Want to nominate your favorite restaurant dish for a "Steal This Recipe" feature? Just e-mail Phil at Phil.Lempert@nbc.com (or use the mail box below) with the name of the restaurant, city and state, and the dish you would like to have re-created. Want to know more about Phil and food? Visit his Web site at www.supermarketguru.com.

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