After 25 years of friendship and shared foodie adventures, Niki Davis and Stephanie Rhodes are teaming up to highlight the Southern Illinois faces and families who shape our food culture.

Meet the hosts of Our Local Table.

Niki Davis

Born into a family of storytellers and great cooks, Niki believes food bridges gaps between people; we share a single experience when we break bread together. Food can teach us about different cultures but also about our own ancestry and heritage. For Niki, cooking is an act of love and community building. 

Niki spent her teen years traveling the United States with her parents to experience food and culture.

Her parents were culinary travelers long before the tourism industry had a name for “foodies”, and she credits these adventures for her love of culinary exploration. Along with her husband and daughter, Niki continues to travel to learn more about their shared European and African heritage.

She built her career around a love of food. In the last 23 years, Niki has taught people of all ages about food and cooking, whether in the university classroom as a professor or through her various community activities. In 2013, she launched Rooted in Foods, a personal blog combining her passions for food and family heritage. That early endeavor provided opportunities to continue exploring food and culture. Now a food writer and recipe developer, Niki works with several local food organizations and tourism entities to highlight Southern Illinois food and its people. Our Local Table is a space where Niki continues to tell the stories of her home, and she hopes you join her at the table!

Stephanie Rhodes

Passionate about agriculture, locally grown ingredients, and the power of a shared meal, Stephanie believes there is no better way to bring people together. When she isn’t working on projects that celebrate local growers or support them in building food systems, she is usually busy teaching about tourism and event planning or simply enjoying life out on the farm.

Her career has always been rooted in agriculture. Raised on a hog farm in southern Illinois, she grew up deeply involved in her rural Union County community through 4-H, FFA, sports, church, and volunteering.

After studying Agriculture Communications at the University of Illinois, she launched her career in marketing communications at AGCO. As she approached her 30s, the pull of home and the warmth of Midwest friendliness brought her back. Since returning to the area, her career has taken some wonderful twists and turns through non-profit work, helping agritourism businesses, advocating for farmers, and promoting the rich culinary heritage of her beautiful rural home region.

In the garden and in the kitchen, she feels a deep connection to her grandmothers and great granny. That space is where she loves to recreate meals and memories inspired by her travels abroad, like the flavors she experienced in Germany, as well as special occasions shared with family and friends. It’s also her playground for experimenting with whatever fresh treasures she discovers at local farmers’ markets.

She hopes you enjoy Our Local Table and is so excited for you to pull up a chair and share a dish together.