Nashville, TN (March 23, 2022)—Recording pros, musicians and more all need creative fuel when in the studio, and for eight years, Rebecca Wood provided plenty of that while she was an administrative assistant at Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Nashville studio. That stint ultimately earned her the title Studio Mama. Now Wood has gathered up a string of studio tales and recipes from that time and cooked them up as The Studio Mama Cookbook, out June 7, 2022.
Wood earned her nom de plume as “The Studio Mama” from Zac Brown when he enlisted her to oversee day-to-day operations at his newly-acquired Southern Ground Nashville recording studio in 2012. Brown transformed the facility into a modern-day music haven, and his renovations included installing a fully-functional residential kitchen that Wood would soon call home. Throughout her tenure at Southern Ground, Wood took care of the studio and the people in it, and her cooking became one of the facilities’ most-appreciated human features.
“Rebecca’s spark and bad-assery were a perfect fit in the fold,” Brown said. “She made Southern Ground a home-away-from-home for anybody who came in. She was the heart of that place, The Studio Mama.”
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In her print debut, Wood covers southern dishes like pimento cheese, deviled eggs, and chicken and waffles, all with her own spin. Each recipe spotlight is paired with a musician she once served it to as well, resulting in cameos from artists such as Dave Grohl, Kacey Musgraves, Leon Bridges, Cheap Trick, Shawn Mendes, Carrie Underwood, and more. The recipes presented in the cookbook include anecdotes and photos from recording sessions, as well as Rebecca’s handy Kitchen Notes, which delve into her process, her pantry items, and her relationships with farmers and growers of the region.
“Lunchtime in the Southern Ground kitchen was a magical time for community and bread-breaking,” said Wood. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to bring all the edible magic that was made in the studio basement to light.”
