All in the Family

How chef Tiffany Derry and her family celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day with a Texas-size feast

- HUNTER LEWIS

YOU KNOW THE CLICHÉS. Mother's Day is for breakfast pancakes in bed, and Father's Day is for steaks on the grill. But what if we treated these two holidays less like Hallmark ones and more like Thanksgiving or Diwali? What if we gathered our entire extended families, showed up in our finest attire, and planned the holiday around how we are going to manage seconds and thirds at the buffet spread?

In other words, what if we went big? Texas big, heart-bursting-with-love big? Derry Family big?

For chef Tiffany Derry, every holiday involves extended family and an enormous meal, but on Mother's Day, the men, led by her uncle LeRoy Johnson, cook a feast to honor the women with food, music, and flowers. A month later, the women return the favor on Father's Day, a good-natured competition to see who can outdo one another with mac and cheese, red rice, sweet potato pie, and love.

"We love to cook, and we love to see people enjoy our food because that is how we were raised. We love the get-togethers. We love everybody just having a good time," Tiffany's mom, Louisa Austin, says.

Derry channeled her family traditions and celebrations into the regional Southern hospitality that makes her highly regarded Texas restaurants-Roots Chicken Shak, Roots Southern Table, and Radici Wood-Fired Grill-hum, and the kind of cooking that makes her a fan favorite at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and on Bravo's Top Chef.

"I look at Tiffany and how she just loves being at her restaurants, and she loves to share and see people eating her food," Austin says.  "It's in her genes. It's just in us to do that."

Recently, Food & Wine sat down with Tiffany, Louisa, and LeRoy to talk about their family holiday rituals that started in the kitchen of Tiffany's grandparents' two-bedroom house and have grown to dozens of people around the table.