Stephen Colbert’s Cookbook Will Make You Crave the Flavors of the Lowcountry

While stuck in their Sullivan’s Island home during the pandemic, Stephen and Evie McGee Colbert found themselves cooking more than usual since they couldn’t visit their favorite Charleston restaurants. Those hours in the kitchen inspired the idea for a cookbook. Out today, Does This Taste Funny: Recipes Our Family Loves covers a range of Lowcountry favorites, from pickled shrimp to pulled pork, and more international plates like lime-mezcal chicken wings and beef Wellington.

Each recipe starts with notes from Stephen and Evie, giving their thoughts on the dish. These paragraphs are quippy and insightful about the couple’s upbringing in Charleston. While they didn’t meet until their mid-twenties, they are now married with three kids and are the founders of Spartina Industries, which produces The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, among many other shows over the years, like The Colbert Report.

Before the September 17 release date of Does This Taste Funny: Recipes Our Family Loves, Eater spoke with Evie about the book and her and Stephen’s time in Charleston. The couple will be back in the Lowcountry on Sunday, September 22, for a conversation with celebrity Busy Philipps about the cookbook.

How did you decide which recipes would go into the book?

Evie: When we first started, I sat down and listed the things that I made all the time — recipes I knew like the back of my hand. Some of those were the lentil soup recipe, the banana bread recipe, and my mom’s cheese biscuits. She didn’t share the recipe with anyone, so I first had to ask her. But because she was so enthusiastic about sharing it, I thought, well, that’s the coup de grace.

We also had a lot of things that we fed our kids over the years. Shrimp and hominy was a thing that Stephen and I grew up with and also gave our kids all the time, so we knew we wanted to include that. We started with what we knew, and then we became a little more adventuresome. I thought, let’s put in stuffed flounder, because I grew up having that. It was a little bit of a journey.

What’s the first recipe readers should make?

That’s tricky. It depends on what they feel like. I think the desserts are really yummy and easy. I think that carrot cake is delicious. I think the breakfast chapter has some great things. I’m a big fan of that banana bread because it’s a little bit different with whole wheat flour. Shrimp and hominy is a classic Lowcountry breakfast dish. That’s why we put it in breakfast. We love that. It’s an easy thing and very Southern.

Many of the recipes include shrimp or crab, which are abundant in the Lowcountry, but not as common elsewhere. Were you always aware of the specialness of Charleston?

I left Charleston when I went to college, and I haven’t lived there full-time since. I went to college, and I moved to New York. Stephen and I got married, lived in Chicago, and moved back to New York. When I first moved to New York City, I couldn’t afford seafood. I also realized that frozen shrimp didn’t taste good. I had taken for granted that you could go to Shem Creek and get shrimp off the boat.

My family grew up with Simmons Seafood at the foot of the bridge. That one has now closed, but the one on Isle of Palms is still open, and we go there all the time. But when I was little, we popped in there at 5 p.m. and picked up something fresh to make for dinner that night. That’s more difficult to do when you’re in a city — you don’t know exactly when the seafood arrives and how fresh it is. When I began feeding my own family, I realized that having access to fresh local food is such a privilege.

What are some of your favorite restaurants in Charleston?

Our house is on Sullivan’s Island, so we love High Thyme. It’s the local restaurant there, and it’s easy for us to walk over there and pick up a dish. We also love the Obstinate Daughter.

If we go into the city, we love FIG — we go there as much as we can. We love the Ordinary. What else have we been to? We just went to Kultura and had a great time and a great meal.

What are two or three bites everyone should try when visiting the Lowcountry?

My family has this funny, I won’t call it hazing, but when people visit, we give them boiled peanuts, and we joke that if you don’t like them, you’re not invited back. It’s an acquired taste, but I would encourage people to try boiled peanuts. There are not many places where you can get them. Stephen and I always say it’s like taking a gulp of the ocean, and it’s best on a boat with a beer.

I grew up on Hamby’s shrimp paste sandwiches. Their shrimp paste is something that I’ve never had anywhere else. It feels very Charleston to me. Benne seed wafers if you want something sweet. What else? I would have people try some local shrimp. Our shrimp in Charleston is so good. I think you take it for granted until you leave. Even at the best restaurant, it still doesn’t taste quite as good as local shrimp right off the boat.

Editor’s note: This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.