Biscuits, soul food and ‘coming out’

Joe Yonan of The Washington Post discussing “coming out” — as a vegetarian.

When you get a bunch of food writers, cookbook editors, chefs and other foodies together for a couple of days, the subject matter is going to be very diverse. The opinions are going to be strong. And there’s going to be pressure to have great food to sustain the effort.

All this was the case when the Southern Food Writing Conference convened in Knoxville earlier this month for its third year. In addition to the important speech from John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, which was reported here yesterday (click here), these are some of the other interesting sights, bites and insights I came across.

Have you ever pondered the differences between Garden & Gun magazine and Southern Living, both bastions of Southern cooking and culture? Jessica Mischner, the senior editor of Garden & Gun, and Hunter Lewis, executive editor of Southern Living, both attended the conference. Edge got the two on a stage together at one point for a very enlightening discussion.

“These are the two reigning mirrors of our region,” Edge said to the editors. “Both your magazines started as shelter magazines, but today you are such big voices — you are a megaphone for our region.” Edge proceeded to draw from the two editors a discussion about what differentiates the two magazines. Here’s the bottom line.

Garden & Gun is more about storytelling, Mischner said. “Our stories are long form, built on a tradition of Eudora Welty and William Faulkner,” she said. “We use food as a vehicle to tell a story. Garden &  Gun is more about the culture of food. We don’t have a test kitchen.”

“Southern Living is about recipes for the home cook,” Lewis said. “It is about the test kitchen. For the May issue, we baked hundreds of recipes in the kitchen to find the perfect biscuit. Our main duty to our readers is to delight and surprise them: to give them something to do, recipes to cook, a garden to plant, a renovation project to do.”

Mischner said Garden & Gun serves affluent readers. “They want authenticity,” she said. “We cover hunt clubs. We are trying to figure out how to cover all parts of the South in an authentic way.” Mischner said 43 percent of Garden & Gun readers do not live in the South.

Lewis said Southern Living, on the other hand, strives to provide recipes that are “shop-able.” “That means the ingredients need to be available at Publix or Walmart or Piggly Wiggly. We try not to have ingredients you need to get at Whole Foods,” he said, adding that 40 percent of Southern Living’s readers shop at Walmart.

Both Mischner and Lewis urged the food writers to pitch stories to their magazines. Both said they are surprised by how few story pitches they receive.

White Lily’s Linda Carman demonstrating how to make a coconut biscuit braid.

On other fronts, I thought Linda Carman, director of the White Lily test kitchen had a cute quote: “Biscuits are the little black dress of baking. You can dress them up or dress them down.”

Beth Kirby, author of the Local Milk blog, which won Saveur magazine’s 2014 award for best photography on a blog, made a point that definitely is true in my life. “People today are re-engineering recipes,” she said. “You don’t see a recipe and go buy the ingredients and make it. You go to the green market, buy what looks good, and then figure out what you can make from it.”

Lisa Donovan is the pastry chef at the very upscale Husk restaurant in Nashville. “I think about class all the time,” she said in response to a question. “It’s very obvious in Nashville. It’s very stark. But Southern food transcends a lot of that. Buttermilk pie is just as well received at Husk as at a church picnic.”

Joe Yonan, food and travel editor for the Washington Post, was a hoot when he described the negative reaction he got when he announced in the newspaper that he had become a vegetarian. “I refer to it as my second coming out!” he said. “The reactions I got reminded me of the reactions I got when I came out the first time: ‘Is it true what I’ve heard about you? How long has this been going on? Is this just a phase? Maybe you just haven’t met the right piece of meat!’ ”

Here’s my sample of that coconut biscuit braid. Delish!

Yonan said he received hundreds of comments on his stories and hundreds of emails when he made the announcement. “I am not promoting a vegetarian agenda in the paper,” he said. “It’s like a religion. You grow up going to a certain church, but at a certain age, you decide what you want to do.” Yonan noted that the South has always had a “reverential relationship” with vegetables.

Belinda Ellis, the former director of the White Lily test kitchen, is author of a book called, “Biscuits.” In the South, she said, people make biscuits at home, whereas in the North, they mostly are purchased at fast food restaurants. “Biscuits are love. Biscuits are magic,” she said. “But biscuits have a way of getting better with memory. Biscuits are better when Momma made them.” Even so, Ellis urged folks to make their own biscuits. “Bake them for yourself,” she said. “Not for some memory in the past.”

Chef Edward Lee of 610 Magnolia in Louisville. He hates modern recipes.

Edward Lee, chef owner of 610 Magnolia, in Louisville, Kentucky, was a riot when he took the podium to describe his pet peeve: today’s recipes and their “modern obsession” with precision and needless instructions such as, “Transfer the contents from the bowl into a frying pan.” There was a time, Lee said, when recipes were written for servants. Recipes were just supposed to be reminders. They were written for people who already knew how to cook and so, often, they were very short. Lee liked these recipes better. “Recipes are not just how-to instructions,” he said. “They are the story of a culture.” Today, every single step is written out. “Tell me, who doesn’t finish a recipe and ‘serve immediately?'” he asked. “Is that really necessary to say?”

Adrian Miller, who just won a James Beard Award for his cookbook “Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine One Plate at a Time,” visited 150 soul food restaurants all over the country and came to these conclusions:

• Collard greens and black-eyed peas are such important ingredients in soul food because they were the easiest familiar food items to transport when slaves were freed and started moving to the North.
• Two of the most common misconceptions about soul food are that 1) it needs a warning label because it is so unhealthy, and 2) soul food is “slave” food, the master’s leftovers.
• Red Kool-Aid is the official soul food drink. (Ha.)
• The future of soul food: down home healthy soul food like creole broiled catfish fillets; upscale soul food such as the “country captain” chicken dish from the Carolinas; vegan soul food such as fried tofu, macaroni and cheese, vegetables and collard greens. “Rethink soul food,” Miller urged. “Give it another look.”

I’m looking forward to giving the Southern Food Writing Conference another look when it returns to Knoxville next year. Join me.

The conference opened appropriately with warm biscuits from Callie’s Charleston Biscuits and pimento cheese. Oh, my.

John T. Edge, left, interviewing Jessica Mischner of Garden & Gun and Hunter Lewis of Southern Living.

Robyn Stone, White Lily’s “blog ambassador,” demonstrating how to make strawberry biscuit rolls.

And here it is! As yummy as it looks!

John Craig, founder of the International Biscuit Festival and the Southern Food Writing Conference, left, with soul food expert Adrian Miller.

The awesome Black Lillies played for us during a musical interlude.

Dale’s Fried Pies brought in savory and sweet hand pies for everyone. (This, after the lunch we had that was featured on the previous post!)

A highlight of this conference is dinner on the first day at Blackberry Farm. We boarded buses at the Crowne Plaza to take us there.

While waiting to board the buses, we enjoyed blackberry shinegrias — sangria made with moonshine! Here’s my date for the night, Mary Bogert. (Alan had to go out of town on biz, poor guy!) Mary, general manager of the Knoxville Convention Center, is a huge foodie.

At Blackberry Farm, Kinslee Read greeted us with a specialty cocktail featuring bourbon. It was strong.

Blackberry Farm’s Sarah Chabot, left, with Bianca Henry, food stylist for NBC’s “Today” show.

Elizabeth Sims of Tupelo Honey Cafe and cookbook author Damon Lee Fowler.

Southern Living executive editor Hunter Lewis, right, with Sam Beall, the proprietor of Blackberry Farm.

A fun bluegrass band provided tunes.

The cocktail crowd enjoyed the scenery.

Country ham topped with grilled asparagus and yogurt. A tasty appetizer.

From left, cookbook author Cynthia Graubart, food writer Sheri Castle and Lauren Kerensky, of White Lily.

Grace Suh, left, with famous cookbook author and TV chef Nathalie Dupree.

Jennifer Justus, left, and Courtney DeLaura from Sugarlands Distilling Co. Jennifer was until recently with “The Tennessean” in Nashville.

Chadwick Boyd and Sarah Gleim.

Tiny barbecued quail legs were passed.

From left, Joe Yonan, Elizabeth Hughey and Chip Brantley.

From left, Mary Bogert, Allan Benton and Bill Alexander.

Here’s Mary with Mark Kelly of Lodge, the cast iron people. Mark said that he hears of about three people per month who are murdered with a cast iron skillet! Fun fact!

I love Blackberry’s centerpieces. Like these chives.

And this lettuce!

Sam Beall welcomed everyone before dinner.

Chicken liver pate with strawberries, watercress and rye toast. So Southern. Paired with a 2013 Niepoort Docil vinho verde.

Mary and I sat with Gary and Stephanie Mullins. He’s with Scripps Networks and she is about to start a food blog.

Smoked Sunburst trout with yogurt, dill and roasted beets. Paired with 2010 Brewer – Clifton chardonnay from Mount Carmel in Santa Rita Hills.

Here’s what happened as every course was served! Foodies.

In the spirit of being adventurous, I tried this course. Benton’s bacon wrapped rabbit with morel mushrooms, peas and ramps. It was delicious, but I just couldn’t eat more than a bite. You know, Bugs and Thumper and their friends. I enjoyed the 2010 Williams Selyem pinot noir, though, from the Central Coast.

By now, I was stuffed. Here’s the main course: Border Springs Farm lamb with Blackberry Farm pencil cob grits, carrots, fava beans and mint pistou. Paired with 2011 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape. Dear Lord.

Olive and Sinclair chocolate mousse with Georgia olive oil, strawberries and pink peppercorn. Oh, and we had some port, too. But by now, I had lost track of the particulars.

Janet Kurtz with Chef Joseph Lenn.

From left, Gary Mullins, Ann Goodstine and Kay Clayton on the way out.

We got back to downtown Knoxville around midnight. But we were in our seats for the first session of the conference the next day, if you can believe!

And, even though we still were full from the night at Blackberry Farm, we were served breakfast by the good folks from Nashville’s Capitol Grille.

Yes, we ate it! Country ham with a poached egg on a half biscuit and breakfast potatoes.

Carrie Morey from Callie’s Charleston Biscuits showed us how to make shortcake and explained how she got into the biscuit business.

A big pan of shortcake!

And, unbelievably, after a few more sessions, Chandler’s Deli provided lunch. This is not my plate!