A Short History of Sweet Potato Pie and How It Became a Flying Saucer

Here is the true story of Pearl Mallory who works as a cook at the St. Mary's Court Retirement Community in Washington, DC. At the age of 82, she has lived nearly her entire life in kitchens cooking for senior citizens. But Pearl's cuisine is not the traditional beige and grey offerings normally found in the institutional walls of old people's homes. Her specialty - Sweet Potato Pie. Mixed into the sweet cream, orange fruit, and exotic spices of Pearl's concoction is her inextricable connection with her tangled Southern roots and with her unyielding devotion to the Lord. Pearl's Sweet Potato Pie inspires the most extraordinary and unexpected effect on the normally sober and otherwise staid residents of St. Mary's Court. A Short History of Sweet Potato Pie and How It Became a Flying Saucer is all the evidence you need to know that “You are what you eat.”