Food checks all the sensory boxes. So, the opportunity to include a dining or cooking experience in our writing should never be overlooked.
I’m Southern. My days and seasons were punctuated by the smell of bacon, the taste of sourwood honey on buttermilk biscuits, the many reds of ripe tomatoes, and the fuzzy feel of okra when I picked it. My mother, grandmother and great grandmother all cooked Southern meals and collected recipes. The image here is from the 1921 Atlanta Women's Club Cookbook passed down through the family.
I laughed when I found the ad to reduce your hips and thighs tucked into the same page as the recipe for bacon and cream sauce laden Rabun Potatoes.
I grew up watching PBS, and Saturdays focused on the cooking shows, everything from Jacques Pepin to Paul Prudhomme. Sadly in January we lost one of my favorites, Nathalie Dupree. Her approachable style and complete commitment to Southern cooking hooked me.
If your writing is set in the South, be sure to check out the Southern Foodways Alliance, an organization Nathalie Dupree helped start. I love the way they incorporate all forms of media in their effort to communicate the past, present and future of Southern food, from Oral Histories, Film, a Podcast, and more.
Enjoy (ya’ll)!