May-June 2016_nobleed

the Pork issue

K itchen Traditions by Liz Williams, Director of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum

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.

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MY ROUSES EVERYDAY maY | JUNE 2016