ABOUT M.O.M.

Through her travels, Chef Lisa came to realize that the best meals of a country are not found in its restaurants. They’re found in its homes, made with love by mothers cooking for their families. So, in addition to Mother’s regular menu where she serves food from mothers around the world, Chef Lisa highlights a different mother each month and features some of her special dishes.

The special mother is called the Mother of the Month (or M.O.M.™), and her photograph, story and menu take a prominent place at the beginning of Mother’s menu. We choose a mother that allows us to take advantage of the seasonal availability of ingredients, such as a Greek mother in the summer months and a Polish mother in the winter months.

If you’d like to nominate a mother to be the M.O.M.™, CLICK HERE and tell us something about her and her special dishes.

M.O.M. Menu

LILLIE MAE BELL RUFFIN

Lunch & Dinner

Sweet Potato & Carrot Fritters (GF*)

with adobo spices, green onions & garlic,
served with a chive-yogurt dipping sauce

12

Dinner

Braised Chicken Ti-Malice (GF)

tender bone-in chicken (white & dark meat) slow-cooked with onions,
peppers, tomatoes, garlic, shallots & habañero peppers,
served with coconut lime rice & topped with red pickliz

25

Dessert

Pain Patate

though the name literally means “sweet potato bread,”
this is a delicious sweet potato pudding
made with bananas, coconut milk, brown sugar, & spices,
served warm with housemade vanilla ice cream

10

Special Cocktail

Barbancourt Rum Sour

Rhum Barbancourt, fresh-squeezed lime juice, splash of pineapple juice,
dash of Angostura bitters & a cherry, on the rocks

12

*cooked in same fryer as gluten-containing items

 

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CURRENT M.O.M. STORY

LILLIE MAE BELL RUFFIN

haitian mother of the month (m.o.m.)

Lillie Mae Bell, grandmother to one of our amazing former cooks, Daron Ruffin, was born in St. Mark, Haiti in 1919, four years after it
was occupied by the United States. She was orphaned by the time she was 16 years old and in 1935 moved to America with her siblings
hoping to find a better life. Having head stories of discrimination in the south, they headed north and settled in Perth Amboy,
New Jersey. That’s where Lillie Mae met and married her husband, Bill Ruffin when she was 18 years old.

In 1955, Lille Mae’s eight year-old daughter, Christine (Daron ’s mother) went to a diner with her dad and sat at the counter. A few
minutes later Bill went to use the restroom, and while he was away the police came in and told Christine she couldn’t sit there as it was only
reserved for whites. When she didn’t move because she was waiting for her father, the police arrested her and took her to jail for resisting.
That was a pivotal moment for the family, and they decided it was time to move to Kentucky to be near other family members.
In 1970, Bill decided he wanted to try his hand at shrimp boating and the family moved to the Gulf Coast.

Lillie Mae decided a better life might be had for the family in a university town, so in 1979 her family of nine (Lillie Mae and Bill
had seven children) moved to Oxford, Mississippi. Lillie Mae got a job with the University of Mississippi where she worked
for 20 years, and her husband became a Baptist pastor.

Lillie Mae was an excellent cook and made traditional jerk turkey or pork at every holiday. It was always served with pikliz
(a coleslaw made with pickled vegetables), so Daron never even knew there was such a thing as coleslaw with mayonnaise until he
was in his teens. One of Daron’s favorite memories of his grandmother is when she’d send him and the other boys out to pick
blackberries and muscadines. They’d be busy sweating and working, only to come in and find their sisters lounging around sipping
sweet tea. The reward for their hard work was a delicious pie and a wonderful muscadine jelly, so it paid off in the end.
Another pay-off is Lillie Mae’s good cooking genes have been passed onto Daron, and we’re enjoying
the delicious fruits of his labor this month!

Nominate A M.O.M.

The M.O.M. menu has been an important part of Mother’s since we opened in 2000.  This allows our guests to experience both new flavors and dishes from around the world and meals prepared with love by mothers cooking for their families.  Our past M.O.M.’s include a wide variety of individuals- mothers, sisters, grandmothers, daughters, friends, and wives- and we’ve even had a few honorary male M.O.M.’s!

If you would like to nominate somebody (or yourself) to be a future M.O.M. at Mother’s, please fill out this form and return it to the host at Mother’s or [email protected].  Once we receive your form, we will contact the nominee (if possible), or you, (if it’s you or if you’d like to be the intermediary) to discuss potential dishes for the M.O.M. menu.

When making menu suggestions, please keep in mind that our M.O.M. menu typically includes an appetizer, salad and/or lunch item, 2-3 entrees (usually a meat, poultry, and/or vegetarian/fish dish) and a dessert.  When making suggestions, feel free to make your list as long as you’d like, but don’t suggest dishes that replicate those on our main menu (even if yours is the best meatloaf in the world, meatloaf is on our regular menu, so couldn’t be offered on our M.O.M. menu).

It’s likely we’ll have a bit of back and forth where I may ask you to list ingredients in a dish to gain a clearer idea of how it might taste, but keep in mind that we won’t need any recipes until after we finalize the menu.

Thanks again for your interest in the M.O.M. program.  Feel free to contact us with any questions you have!

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