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Quote by Marcie Cohen Ferris

“Southern food derives its strength from many cultures. It's a melding of food cultures from Native Americans, enslaved African-Americans, and Europeans.”

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Marcie Cohen Ferris

Limited information is available about Marcie Cohen Ferris, whose occupation and category are unknown. more

“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.”

People Thinking Today Audience Sweet Tradition Response Excellent Culinary Southern Catfish

Author:Marcie Cohen Ferris

“Southern food that appears in contemporary popular culture is so exaggerated that it's hardly recognizable to most Southerners. This enriching of Southern food - fatter, richer, more over the top - is what we typically see on TV, in Hollywood films, and in Southern-style or country-themed chains like Cracker Barrel. Southern food becomes a caricature, like characters and props in a reality TV show.”

Character Reality Film Culture Southern Popular Culture Southerner

Author:Marcie Cohen Ferris

“Most Southerners recognize when a story about their own experience feels off-kilter or offensive. But Southerners are also fascinated by the way their region is presented in popular culture. It is exciting to see how filmmakers take great care to present worlds in which race, region, and food are deeply intertwined.”

World Care Culture Exciting Filmmaker Offensive Popular Culture Southerner

Author:Marcie Cohen Ferris

“The study of foodways - the intersection of food and culture - addresses a central issue in the humanities: how we connect the great dramas of history with the lives of ordinary people.”

People Humanity Culture Study Drama Ordinary People

Author:Marcie Cohen Ferris

“In studying food, you embrace everything. Food exposes the long, complex history of the South - slavery, Jim Crow segregation, class struggle, extreme hunger, sexism, and disenfranchisement. These issues are revealed through food encounters, and they contrast this with the pleasure and the inventiveness of Southern cuisine. Food is always at the heart of daily life in the South.”

Heart Long Pleasure Struggle Study Slavery Embrace Hunger Daily Life Sexism Southern Contrast Segregation Crow Jim Crow Inventiveness

Author:Marcie Cohen Ferris

“Historically, women's voices were central to food narratives, yet they were marginalized, and what happened at the table, the kitchen, the garden, and the fields was silenced. I'm very interested in how food appears in the historical record and animates our understanding of the South. It provides texture both to the past and to our contemporary experience. My work is not about discovering new voices, but rather it encourages voices that have been silenced to come forward and speak a little louder.”

Past Speak Understanding Garden Historical Kitchen

Author:Marcie Cohen Ferris

“The core cuisine of Southern food is established in the plantation South, within the world of slavery. To understand the plantation table, we must understand the relationship of enslaved people to Africa, to historical trauma, and their central role in food production. Their voice is the most poignant, expressive voice in Southern cuisine.”

People World Slavery Historical Trauma Southern Poignant

Author:Marcie Cohen Ferris

“The South is about the abundance, beauty, and richness of Southern culture, but also its dark underside. The history of Southern food reflects the history of slavery, of poverty, of the negotiation of power.”

Culture Dark Poverty Slavery Abundance Southern Negotiation

Author:Marcie Cohen Ferris

“Every day, nay every moment, try to do some good deed.”

Trying Moments Deeds Good Deeds Good Day Caliphs

Author:Abu Bakr

“I think about what I eat every day. I try to eat as locally as I can and as healthily as I can. When you prepare a historic recipe that could as easily been eaten in the 1800s as in 2014, it is a powerful act. When you take that food and its associated memory and put it in your body, it becomes part of who you are. While most people do not think about it consciously, there is an honoring of history that happens during that meal.”

People Thinking Trying Memories Powerful Who You Are Historic

Author:Marcie Cohen Ferris

Quote by Marcie Cohen Ferris

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