CRAFT by Under My Host® Issue No. 16 Made in America: Part I | Page 69

but people that are concerned about hospitality, care about food quality, are
passionate about ingredients, and are aware of where their food comes from,
I find, are generally pretty nice folks. Being able to travel from Texas to Virgin-
ia with Secrets of the Southern Table and meet so many of these makers and
harvesters was one of the greatest gifts of my life. 
What are some of your favorite small, local food producers?
I divide my time between Atlanta and the Pioneer Valley in Western Massa-
chusetts. It’s two very different worlds. In Atlanta, I live in the city. The Atlanta
food scene is very locally driven.  My favorite farmer’s market is at Grant Park
on Sundays. It’s a beautiful setting for a farmer’s market, and it’s a very fami-
ly-oriented market. My favorite grits are from my friend Charlotte Swancy with
Riverview Farms, one of the oldest organic farms in Georgia. Other favorite
farmers include the Harris family at White Oak Pastures in Southwest Georgia.
White Oak Pastures is the largest organic farm in Georgia and the subject of
one of my stories in Secrets of the Southern Table. In Western Massachusetts,
I live in the country and am surrounded by small, local producers. One of our
favorite farms is Clarkdale Fruit Farm, a fourth-generation fruit farm located
in the beautiful hills of Deerfield, Massachusetts. It’s important for me to seek
out folks in the good food movement wherever I am. 
What ingredients or preparations encapsulate the food traditions of
the South best for you, and why? 
Georgia leads the country in the production of peanuts, pecans, and peaches.
Cotton ranks second among Georgia’s crops, followed by tobacco, soybeans,
and corn. Agriculture is a tremendous industry in the South. I strongly feel that
Southern cooking is an agricultural based cuisine — we have something com-
ing out of the ground or off the tree nearly 12 months out of the year. What do
I think of when I think of Southern food? Biscuits, fried chicken, cornbread,
okra and tomatoes, and collard greens with a ham hock are some of the food
traditions that come to mind. Yet, the most wonderful piece is that Southern
cuisine is a living, breathing, changing thing. Collard greens can be vegetarian,
okra can be spiced with garam masala, and fried chicken can be Latin-inspired
and seasoned with smoked paprika and ground coriander. I love studying
how traditional Southern ingredients look in someone else’s skillet, how immi-
grants to the South, both new and old, change and effect Southern cuisine. 
What are your favorite cookbooks?
I collect cookbooks, and while I have a substantial collection, my partner is
also in the business and has several thousand! I don’t cook directly from them
all that often unless I am playing around in a cuisine that I am not familiar. I
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