Kitchen confidence

We don’t need Top Chef to show that Atlantans

know their way around the stove. For proof,

we present our definitive list of iconic Georgia

cookbooks. PLUS More inspiration from

three dramatic kitchen makeovers.

by bill addison and suzanne oliver

photograph by patrick heagney

Country Captain, p. 111

Peach Tart, p. 113

Succotash, p. 111

Biscuits, p. 113

Green Mac and Cheese, p. 112

Kitchen Confidence

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Southern Cooking by Mrs. S.R. Dulluniversity of georgia press

Any discussion of Georgia cook-books begins with Henrietta Stanley Dull’s regional master-work. An able cook who became the family wage earner when her husband’s health failed, Dull catered and demonstrated gas stoves for Atlanta Gas Light Company before being named the editor of the home econom-ics page for the Atlanta Journal’s Sunday magazine in 1920. She wrote a weekly column called “Mrs. Dull’s Cooking Lessons” that ran for a quarter century. A

New Southern Cooking bridged traditional Southern cuisine with the New American culi-nary movement that began to flower in the eighties. Published in 1986 and written as a com-panion to her television series of the same name, the book helped ingratiate Southern foodways to the rest of the country with its casual, conversational tone and streamlined recipes. “The fun of new Southern cooking is to take the old and the new and put them together with creative zest,” Dupree says in the intro-duction. The former Atlanta magazine columnist proves her point skillfully with recipes such as butter bean soup made with champagne rather than stock, and dinner roll dough whipped together using a food processor. If you’re new to Southern cook-ing or need a refresher course in fried green tomatoes, shad, and caramel cake, Dupree remains the quintessential teacher.

The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacockalfred a. knopf

If we had to name a Book of the Decade on the subject of South-ern cuisine, this would be the one. It is an intimate collabora-tion between two passionate and masterful cooks who shared a close friendship for almost two decades. Lewis’s previous books (including The Taste of Country Cooking and In Pursuit of Fla-vor) captured the tastes of her rural Virginia childhood in lyric prose. Peacock, executive chef at Decatur’s Watershed, won the 2007 James Beard award for Best Chef in the Southeast. Gift’s personal writing, the meticu-lously researched recipes, and the book’s clean, soothing design

he old saw where Southerners ask, “Who are your people?” could easily be followed (or replaced altogether) by a much more tantalizing question: “What are your favorite family recipes?” Our regional dishes continue to define and

inspire us, from the novice home cook to our city’s latest celebrity chef. Herewith, we present our list of must-have Georgia cookbooks. These standout culi-nary authors showcase, gastronomically speaking, where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re headed. Even if you never cook, each of these volumes makes for novelistic reading. ¶ To take our project a step further—and to nudge future generations toward Southern food—we asked culinary students from the Art Institute of Atlanta to prepare recipes from some of the books (listed on pages 111–114), which were pho-tographed for this story. In a blur of chef whites, the students labored with worker-bee earnestness. Some grew up on Southern classics such as fried chicken and collards; others had never before baked a batch of biscuits. Regardless, the results made us want to grab the following books and head for the kitchen.

first edition of Southern Cooking was published locally in 1928; New York publishing house Grosset and Dunlap printed an expanded and reworked edi-tion with 1,300 recipes in 1941 that sold an impressive 150,000 copies. Almost seventy years later, the plain-spoken style of recipe writing from that era comes across as inevitably out-moded, but the book is still an authoritative, fascinating read. Her instructions for prepar-ing possum and animal-rich Brunswick stew redefine “from scratch”—she coaches how to pull off hair and saw through backbones. (Most recipes—

oyster bisque, eggplant soufflé, drop biscuits, or watermelon-rind pickles, for example—are far less graphic.) The University of Georgia Press’s 2006 reprint-ing of Southern Cooking includes a new foreword by Damon Lee Fowler that further illustrates the importance of Dull’s book as a culinary record of transitional Dixie in the twentieth century.

New Southern Cooking by Nathalie Dupreeuniversity of georgia press

Dull’s Southern Cooking doc-umented venerable food cus-toms, but Dupree’s now-classic

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coalesce so satisfyingly. Try the salmon croquettes for a week-night supper, and the Country Captain (a Southern port-city curried chicken dish) and ethere-al banana pudding for company.

The Lady & Sons Savan-nah Country Cookbook by Paula Deenrandom house

Before Deen’s sparkly blues, pearly whites, and color-ful ways with butter brought her national fame on the Food Network, she was known to Georgians as the proprietress of Savannah’s fiercely popular home-cooking restaurant, The Lady & Sons. This is her first cookbook, a snapshot of the heart and ambition she put into opening her venture. Ritz crack-ers, canned fruit, and packaged mixes appear copiously in these recipes, but, let’s face it, they’ve found a permanent and promi-nent place in the Southern culi-nary lexicon. Pass the pineapple casserole, please?

The Savannah Cookbook by Damon Lee Fowlergibbs smith

Rare is the coffee table cook-book, such as this one, whose pretty pages you also want to splatter in the kitchen. All of Fowler’s books—from Classical Southern Cooking to New South-ern Baking—are worth own-ing, but his most recent effort tightens the focus onto the city where he’s made his home for the past three decades. Fowler, who is as much a historian as he is a cook, tells the stories of Savannah’s resonant politi-cal, social, and economic past through its indigenous dish-es. The introduction alone is an absorbing account of the

myriad influences that form the city’s gastronomic fabric, and enlightening tales flank many of the recipes. Bobotie (a minced meat and egg cus-tard dish), rice waffles, curried shrimp, Savannah cream rolls, and a definitive peach tart all illuminate the town’s authentic, often lesser-known flavors.

Atlanta Cooks at Home by Melissa Libbycitybooks publishing

Savannah prides itself on its domestic cooking heritage; Atlan-ta loves its restaurants. Who bet-ter to gather recipes for home cooks from prominent Atlanta chefs than Libby, one of the city’s reigning restaurant public rela-tions mavens? The chefs con-tributed themed menus, rang-ing from bridal or baby shower luncheon fare by Canoe’s Carvel Grant Gould to a Greek Easter dinner by Kevin Rathbun. Jason Hill’s mac and cheese flecked with braised greens, served at Wisteria, is one of our favorite side dishes in town.

Best of the Best from Georgia Cookbook edited by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseleyquail ridge press

Junior League, church, and community cookbooks can offer piquant glimpses into the culi-nary traditions and idiosyncra-sies of a region. The Best of the Best cookbook series, which by 2005 had covered all fifty states, combs through these local, fre-quently self-published tomes and compiles some of the most noteworthy finds. The Georgia edition, originally published in 1989 and updated in 2006, occasionally forays into kitsch (pecans, not macadamias, star

in a sweet dubbed “Hawaiian nut sandwiches”), but there are also plenty of honest regional specialties: Look for Georgia peanut soup, two user-friendly versions of Brunswick stew, no fewer than four variations of fried chicken, and, of course, a cake made with Coca-Cola.

Bon Appétit, Y’all by Virginia Willisten speed press

Long regarded in Atlanta (and beyond) for her grace and culi-nary prowess, Georgia native Virginia Willis debuted her first cookbook last year, and it’s a visual and gustatory stunner. Willis has earned quite the culi-nary pedigree: She apprenticed with Nathalie Dupree, stud-ied with Anne Willan at her famed La Varenne in France, worked as the kitchen direc-tor on Martha Stewart Living for three years, and runs her own production company. In her book, she gathers all these experiences and marries them to her family’s local roots. She refers to her style as “refined Southern cuisine,” acknowledg-ing that any cuisine (even one as stubbornly rooted as South-ern cooking) is never frozen in a stagnant set of principles but evolves continuously. In that regard, savor her red vel-vet cake and summer vegetable succotash, but don’t overlook her Vidalia onion soup with bacon flan, or even her unapolo-getically Gallic—and incredibly comforting—recipe for boeuf Bourguignonne.

BakeWise by Shirley O. Corriherscribner

Corriher, an Atlanta biochemist who became a recipe consultant

to food companies and cookbook authors, made the science behind food accessible—chatty, even—in her first book, CookWise. Late last year, after a dozen years of testing and tinkering, Corriher published its sweet-toothed sequel. BakeWise is a tome of cakes, cookies, pies, and breads full of clear, infallible instruc-tions that demystify desserts (as well as savory pastries) for those who don’t consider them-selves bakers. It also elucidates the chemistry behind flours, sugars, and leaveners for those who geek out on such esoterica. Corriher’s point of concentra-tion is not strictly Southern, but her recipes for gloriously puffed spoonbread, meringue inspired by Bill Greenwood of Green-wood’s on Green Street restau-rant in Roswell, and her famous “touch-of-grace” biscuits do the South and Atlanta more than proud. —cookbook reviews

by bill addison

Thanks to the Art Institute of Atlanta, especially Elizabeth Wil-son, Kim Resnik, and chef Ken Cel-mer, for their help with this project. Student chefs are: Ellen Anderson, Rodrick Beazer, Astrid Julia Rem-ello Dixon, Brian David Hills, Mariá V. Juarbe, Nathan Lute, Doug Page, James Pak

“Country Captain,” The Gift of Southern Cooking, Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock

“Fresh Summer Vegetable Suc-cotash with Basil,” Bon Appétit, Y’all, Virginia Willis

“Braised Green Mac and Cheese,” Atlanta Cooks at Home, Melissa Libby

“Shirley Corriher’s ‘Touch-of-Grace’ Southern Biscuits,” Bake-Wise, Shirley O. Corriher

“Peach Tart,” The Savannah Cookbook, Damon Lee Fowler

ReCipeS STARTiNG oN pAGe 111:

Kitchen Confidence