Summer 2016 | Sea Island Life Magazine Spring/Summer 2016 | Page 29

OPPOSITE PAGE: ADAM LERNER; THIS PAGE: COURTESY OF SUCCOTASH

W

hile each area of the country is
known for its own distinctive
flavors, recently, the Southern
culinary culture has become
increasingly prevalent in areas far beyond the
Mason-Dixon line.
Waffle House, the iconic diner chain
founded in Atlanta more than 60 years ago,
has expanded to over 1,500 locations across
the country, including states ranging from
Pennsylvania to Illinois in the north and from
Oklahoma to Arizona out west. Cracker Barrel
Old Country Store, which started in Lebanon,
Tenn., in 1969, now has 630-plus restaurants
in 42 states.
Along with the explosive success of these
popular chains, Dixieland-style dining is
making its way into upscale restaurants from
coast to coast. Critically acclaimed chefs
such as Edward Lee of Succotash in National
Harbor, Md., Jean-Paul Bourgeois of Blue
Smoke in New York City and Tanya Holland
of Brown Sugar Kitchen and B-Side BBQ in
Oakland, Calif., have emerged as trailblazers,
taking what was once a regional culinary style
and introducing it to new audiences.

Southern Roots
The cuisine’s unique history provides
one explanation for why people from the
Northeast, Midwest and West Coast are
now taking an active interest in this style
of cooking. Southern food encompasses an
array of cultural influences as diverse as the
people who inhabit the region. For example,
the popularity of corn, squash, tomatoes and
the pit-barbecue cooking style originated with
local Native American tribes. In Louisiana,
Cajun cuisine is deeply rooted in culinary

Clockwise from top left: Edward Lee, pimento fundito and the dining room at Succotash in Maryland

traditions from rural France and the Southern
love of a full breakfast can be traced back to
the traditional English “fry-up.”
“The South is very much regionalized,
much like Provence, Paris, Lyon and
Normandy, which all have different variations
and interpretations of French food,” says
Louisiana native Bourgeois, who took over as
executive chef at Blue Smoke in 2014. “People
are now discovering that there’s a whole
world of cuisine that has been evolving for
over a century within their own country that
they may not have been aware of. My hope
is that people are seeing that the South is so
much more than just fried chicken, barbecue
and biscuits and gravy.”
As people raised in the South migrate
across the country, they take their culinary

traditions with them, often passing recipes
down from generation to generation.
Holland, the Bay Area chef and entrepreneur
known for her inventive take on modern soul
food, was born in Connecticut and raised in
New York. But her early interest in cooking
came from her Southern-born parents, who
founded a gourmet cooking club for couples
from different ethnic and professional
backgrounds when she was a child.
“They were wonderful home cooks, and
genuinely enjoyed bringing people together
for entertaining,” she says. “Having both
grown up in the South—my father in Virginia
and my mother in Louisiana—each brought
with them influences from other countries
and regions that inspired me to learn and
cook as much as possible.”

SPRING/SUMMER 2016 | SEA ISL AND LIFE 29