Star Chef Curtis Aikens
Heart & Soul

Curtis G. Aikens was born and raised in Conyers, Georgia, about twenty-two miles east of Atlanta. He spent many summers in north Georgia, learning about produce in his grandfather's garden, and spent many hours in his mother's kitchen, back in Conyers, learning how to cook. 

Curtis received a football scholarship to Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and later transferred to the University of Georgia. At the end of his first semester at UGA, Curtis moved to California, where he launched a successful produce company. 

At the age of twenty-six, Curtis took steps to address the one problem that had plagued him all his life -- illiteracy. He called the Marin County Literacy Project at the San Rafael Library and began working with volunteer tutors. 

Returning to the East Coast, Curtis worked in produce, TV, and film in New York City. After two years he went back to Georgia, formed Aikens' Family Produce, Inc., and began writing a weekly newspaper column on fruits and vegetables. 

Reader response was so enthusiastic that Curtis was offered a spot on television as "Georgia's Greengrocer." Meantime, he published his first book, Curtis Aikens' Guide to the Harvest, and became the produce expert on ABC's Home show for four years. 

After Home left the air, Curtis became host of two Television Food Network shows, Food in a Flash and Meals Without Meat. Curtis can now be seen whipping up lighter and healthier meals on his new TV Food Network show, From My Garden. 

As a literacy activist, Curtis has been featured on NBC's Nightly News, ABC's World News Tonight, and PBS's Reading Rainbow. He donates 50 percent of his royalties from his first book to literacy groups across the country. Curtis Aikens lives in Conyers, Georgia, and northern California.