An invitation to the prestigious Charleston Food and Wine Festival puts Courtney Taylor of Natchez among some of the country’s best-known food and wine experts.

As a successful cookbook author and a professional in the culinary arts for more than a decade, Taylor will be right at home at the festival, to be held in Charleston, S.C., March 1 through 4.

The invitation is highly prized, and she is delighted with the opportunities that the festival visit affords her, Taylor said.

“Charleston has become a culinary center in the U.S.,” she said, pointing out on a brochure the huge culinary village where she will appear with others to demonstrate food preparation and recipes.

“It’s truly an honor to be invited to one of the biggest cooking events in America,” she said.

The invitation came as a result of her friendship with one of the most influential food experts in Charleston, Nathalie Dupree, Taylor said.

The two women met when they were on the same press trip for food writers. “We hit it off immediately and spent some fun time together in Paris,” Taylor said.

The trip continued into scenic rural France, where the writers received “an intense cheese education in incredibly beautiful surroundings,” Taylor said.

“You never forget an experience like that, seeing cheese making first hand, tasting it, talking to the people who make it.”

Taylor invited Dupree a couple of years ago to come to the Natchez Food Festival. “I said, ‘why don’t you come and cook for us,’ and she said she’d love to do that.”

Then a few weeks ago Dupree called Taylor and said, “Turnabout is fair play.”

Taylor will sign copies of her book, “The Southern Cook’s Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Old-Fashioned Southern Cooking,” at the show.

The cookbook, which she authored with her cousin, Bonnie Carter Travis, also a Natchez native, has been highly successful and has a five-star rating on Amazon.com.

“There will be a book signing Saturday with a demonstration right before the signing,” Taylor said.

Taylor became interested in culinary arts when the late Lee Bailey asked for her help in research and recipe writing for his book, “Southern Food and Plantation Houses.”

In fact, the lemon cake she will demonstrate from her own cookbook is included in Bailey’s book.

“It’s basically a butter cake with a lemon zest in the cake and lemon curd as filling,” she said.

“I’ll also be able to demonstrate the very complicated lemon curd as part of the demonstration.”

She will show the right way to make lemon zest and give tips, such as using room-temperature lemons because they squeeze more easily.

“I’ll talk about ways to tell a good lemon from one that is not as good,” she said.

“Lemons should feel heavy and firm for their size. There should be no blemishes and no soft places in the end. And they should be fragrant,” she said.

When making the zest, “use just the colored part of the skin. That’s where the oil is. The pith is very bitter.”

Taylor demonstrated. “Use a vegetable peeler and make strips. No recipe calls for very much zest,” she said. Strips then are minced into small pieces.

She practices what she preaches in cooking. For one thing, “cooks need to learn to take the time it takes too cook. Give yourself enough time to enjoy cooking.”

Taylor chose the lemon cake for her demonstration because “cakes are spectacles, with lots of steps you can demonstrate, and that makes it interesting,” she said. “And I also chose this cake because it is really delicious.”

Taylor is honored that her cookbook has been included in the festival. She said the thing that makes the cookbook a standout is that it is a wonderful tool in the kitchen.

“That’s why we wrote it. We like to think that if you can’t get your mama on the phone, this cookbook will tell you what to do.”

In addition to enjoying the opportunity to be at the festival and to meet some of the most prominent experts in food and wine, Taylor expects to do a little promoting of her hometown, as well.

“I hope, as always, to talk incessantly about my hometown. I’ll take brochures, maybe put one in every book,” she said.