Vivian Howard is the chef at Chef and the Farmer in the small Eastern North Carolina town of Kinston. She also "co-stars" with her husband Ben Knight on their Peabody Award-winning PBS show “A Chef’s Life.”
Sign photo by Andy Hagedon of Smart Image
Episode 15: Charlotte Historian Tom Hanchett and the Newest New South
“Folks started talking about the New South after the Civil War," says Tom Hanchett, staff historian at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, North Carolina. "Where we are now is the newest of the New Souths, the Newcomer South.” Tom speaks about the ever-evolving South, especially as it relates to food, from a booth in El Pulgarcito, a Honduran-Salvadoran-Mexican restaurant in the eastern part of the city.
Special music in this episode courtesy of Charlotte-based band UltimaNota.
Episode 14: Cynthia Graubart and Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking
Cynthia Graubart attained culinary celebrity status last year when she won a James Beard Award for the cookbook she co-wrote with famed Southern author Nathalie Dupree. It’s called Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking, and it is amazing. It took four years to write, and it weighs six and a half pounds. It’s got 750 recipes and another 650 variations on the standards. It is becoming itself a standard--a bible--for any Southern cook.
Episode 13: Remembering Eudora Welty with Folklorist Bill Ferris
Eudora Welty, Jackson, Miss., 1978 by William Ferris
Eudora Welty was one of the South’s most beloved writers, and her fiction is still a study in detail and dialogue and wit. Her settings were often Southern, but her themes were universal. Eudora won multiple awards in her lifetime, including a Pulitzer in 1973 for her novel The Optimist’s Daughter. She passed away in 2001.
The audio you hear of Eudora in this episode is part of folklorist Bill Ferris' recent book The Storied South, which is a collection of interviews with iconic writers, musicians, historians, photographers and artists.
I first featured Bill in Episode 10, and we talked extensively about his 40-year career and how the South has perfected the art of storytelling.
In this episode, Bill returns to tell us about his close friendship with the famous Southern writer.
Eudora Welty, New Haven, Conn., 1974
Bill Ferris, 1970s
Bill Ferris, Decatur, Georgia, 2013
From THE STORIED SOUTH: VOICES OF WRITERS AND ARTISTS by William Ferris. Copyright © 2013 by William Ferris.
Episode 11: Bestselling Novelist Cassandra King
Cassandra King, Atlanta, GA
Bestselling novelist Cassandra King talks about her new book Moonrise as well as her writing relationship with her husband, famous author Pat Conroy.
"Being married to another writer was just like dropping a little fat kid into a candy store."
Episode 6: Southern Living Travel Writer Les Thomas
Les Thomas wrote his way across the South. His travel writing, for Texas newspapers, Southern Living magazine and beyond, has spanned over 45 years. He's a giant of a man with an innate curiosity.
"I've always liked to ask questions," he says. "That's been part of my life, I guess. I've probably asked way too many beyond patience, but I don't know how you find out things unless you ask."
This episode is the first in a series called Southern Storytellers.
Episode 1: What is Southern?
I believe that okra symbolizes the ever-evolving definition of the South. It is Southern to the core, but as a non-native plant, okra had to become Southern. In my search for an answer to the question, "What is Southern?" I talk to my grandmother about her fried okra, the Director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, the former editor-in-chief of Southern Living magazine, and a Korean-born pop singer-turned-chef who fries okra in tempura batter at her Southern barbecue joint in Atlanta.