Bert & T.’s: Charleston’s Sweetest Addition Unveiling Gullah-Inspired Delicacies
Charleston, a city well known for its culinary prowess, has recently gained a sweet addition to its thriving gastronomical scene—Bert & T’s Desserts. The delectable treasure is a brainchild of Christina Miller, a talented legacy baker whose timeless recipes have been inspired by her late grandmothers, Bert and T.
Discovering a Passion for Legacy Baking
Miller, a native of Charleston’s Lowcountry and a James Island local, grew up surrounded by her roots which predominantly influenced both, her desire to launch Bert & T’s Desserts and the creativity it embodies today. Surprisingly, the artisan baker was not always in the food business. She revealed, “In college, people discovered that I was a good baker and started ordering baked items from me on campus.”
Subsequently, Miller followed a fruitful career path as a registered nurse (RN) and found herself traversing the country in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and Houston before the Covid-19 pandemic lured her back home. With work shifts getting canceled amidst the lockdown, Miller turned her baking hobby into a business as she started fulfilling dessert orders from home.
A Homage to Grandmothers’ Art of Baking
An integral part of Christina’s childhood featured idyllic scenes of her assisting her grandmothers— “Bertha” and “Eutellia” or “Bert” and “T,” as they were fondly called — with rolling pie crusts and filling cake pans. This fostered her love for baking, and she started channeling this affinity into producing original Bert & T’s desserts, all of which are scratch-made with top-notch ingredients sourced locally as much as possible.
Furthermore, Bert & T’s desserts are not just repositories of her grandmothers’ recipes but also a reflection of the culinary influences of Charleston’s older female community members, including Miller’s great aunts and women from her church, who willingly shared their recipes and narratives.
Conjuring Gullah Goodness and Winning Hearts
In addition to her handcrafted ice cream and sorbets, Miller’s menu showcases old-school Gullah favorites such as groundnut cakes and black walnut brittle. This fresh approach to Charleston’s food scene is quickly garnering attention and accolades. Bert & T’s has already won grants from prominent initiatives like The Heinz Black Kitchen and Lowcountry Locals “Ready, Set, Pitch!” which have helped Miller to establish a mobile dessert truck. Her desserts are now available nationwide throughout the U.S.
As Bert & T’s Desserts keep wooing Charleston locals and visitors alike, Christina Miller is looking forward to participating in the upcoming Black Food Truck Festival scheduled for April 27 and 28 at the Exchange Park Fairgrounds. In the midst of her successful venture, Miller hasn’t forgotten her penchant for creativity outside the kitchen—claiming her creativity thrives in music, art, graphic design, and fashion.
Charleston is ripe with diversity and variety when it comes to its culinary culture, and Bert & T.’s Desserts lends a legacy and depth to this tapestry, serving not only tantalizing sweets but also comfort woven with the threads of local heritage and familial love.
