LAKE PARK — Terrie Robinson has a heart as big as the moon and a gift for the silver spoon.

The 17-year Lake Park resident is one of seven daughters who learned to cook at an early age. She’s developed quite the gift for original recipes of popular Southern cuisine. Her fried collard greens, for example, will make your mouth water with just a gaze, much less a sniff of the aroma.

Robinson makes sure she uses her gift and passion for cooking to help the needy at Thanksgiving and Christmas, when she stays up all night twice a year to cook holiday meals for about 75 to 100 needy folks at her home.

Today, Robinson finds herself in an unlikely position after one of those strange twists of fate came her way earlier this year.

She had worked at Truckstops of America up until March.

“On March 7, after working there seven years, they called me into the office and told me they would no longer need my services,” Robinson said. “I was stunned, but my faith was strong. They say when God closes one door, He opens another. And He did.”

Robinson had come to know the Chinese folks who operated a restaurant in the Winn Dixie Plaza in 1044 Lakes Blvd. Suite 7. They had sampled her cooking and told her that she should start her own restaurant. And she did. She opened in the same location after the Chinese had closed their business, on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14.

Terrie Robinson is now Southern chef extraordinaire at Let’s Eat Cafe, Lake Park true Southern buffet. No longer do locals need to ride into Valdosta to fill up on a good, hearty, affordable, Southern buffet. (Or they can order off a menu that includes breakfast.)

You don’t want to miss this one if you’re hungry. If you are facing Winn Dixie, Let’s Eat Cafe is in the far left corner of the shopping center near the golf course holes easily seen from the parking lot, next to a beauty supply outlet.

Business has been slow but it’s picking up as word gets around about Robinson’s uncanny gift for making old fashioned Southern foods that make one come back for more and more.

She makes everything homemade style beginning at 6 a.m. sharp each morning. There’s her special chicken and dumplings. And real red-eye gravy (she takes steak strips, fries them and stirs it up in gravy and grits). And pigs feet occasionally for the oldtimers, as well as whole cake cornbread that looks like pancakes.

She has pork chops on Thursdays and all-you-can eat fish on Fridays. But don’t forget about the baked and southern fried chicken she has on her buffet everyday.

“I’m an old country girl who was born in Jacksonville and raised in Indian Town, Fla.,” Robinson explained. “I learned to cook doing it for my family. All my sisters cook. Our mama taught us well. She used to say, ‘Throw a potato at me and I’ll season it.’”

Let’s Eat serves up the best grilled burgers in town, too.

“I love cooking,” Robinson said. “I put my heart into it. I can’t go to sleep if I’m cooking.”