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MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
maY | JUNE 2016
D
espite our current obsession with
chefs, the real basis for a cuisine
is the food people cook and serve
at home. Even in cities that have many
restaurants serving local cuisine, it is still
not the restaurants that nurture the flavors,
the dishes and the cultural foodways of the
city. It is the home cooks, who prepare food
to share with their families and friends, who
are the guardians of our food traditions and
who are the transmitters of those traditions
into the future.
Before the coming of the Europeans to
settle in the South, the native peoples
prepared meals that reflected the great
natural bounty of the area. They cultivated
and tended to oyster beds, gathered fish,
crabs and shrimp, caught crawfish, hunted
duck and turkey and deer, tended corn,
pecans, tomatoes, onions, sweet potatoes,
peppers, peanuts, pumpkin and beans.
Despite its variety this list does not reflect
all that was available and exploited by native
people. Through trade they had access to
such things as chocolate and potatoes. This
diverse natural pantry formed the basis of
plentiful, generous, and complex foodways.
The Europeans established themselves in
the region in the late 17
th
and early 18
th
century. In the earliest days the Europeans,
whether English, French, German or
Spanish,were hard pressed to duplicate their
traditional dishes and cultural practices. But
there was an abundance of local product
and there were also ships bringing supplies.
The food that developed was home cooking
and street food. With the addition of
enslaved Africans who worked as cooks
as well as agricultural workers, the region’s
home kitchens became the crucible for the
development of what has come to be known
as Southern cuisine.
So many cultural traditions include food
as a central component that food and
kitchen have become the standard bearers
of our culture. Parents cook with their
children as a way to pass down tradition.
Families eat together as a way to share their
love. Cooking is a respected skill. Good
home cooks are honored and recognized,
competing with each other to make the
best gumbo or the best red beans and rice at
festival competitions.
K itchen Traditions
by
Liz Williams, Director of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum
the
Pork
issue