“While I felt very much a Southerner as a child, being Jewish gave me an outsider's perspective. People look at region in a variety of ways, and I always paid attention to food. Food rises above other things for me. From a young age, I saw food as a barometer of cultural identity, and I was fascinated by how people defined themselves through their food traditions.” PeopleChildrenAgeAttentionIdentityPerspectiveTraditionVarietyRise AboveSoutherner Author:Marcie Cohen Ferris
“When I'm asked to define "Southern food," I usually turn that question back to my audience and ask them what they think. I hear responses like fried chicken, catfish, barbecue, collard greens, and sweet potatoes. These are excellent examples, because they are historically grounded. You can trace each dish back to the people who brought these food traditions to the South. Today, these foods are central to the core culinary grammar of the American South.” PeopleThinkingTodayAudienceSweetTraditionResponseExcellentCulinarySouthernCatfish Author:Marcie Cohen Ferris