(Chef
and food writer Virginia Willis hails from Atlanta and is the author of Bon
Appétit, Y’all and Basic to Brilliant, Y’all. Her latest book is titled Okra.)
1. How
and/or when did you get you hooked on history?
One of
my heroes growing up was Ben Franklin. I have always been a history geek. I loved Williamsburg, Virginia as much
as Disney World as a child. I feel a real connection to the past.
2. What
role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
I was
actually a history major at UGA, so this email request was so exciting! As a
chef and food writer, I continue to educate myself about the history of food.
Undoubtedly,
my love of history has contributed to my affinity for Southern food and
cooking. I like to look at the social and anthropological aspects of cuisine. I
have a very strong belief that everything we believe in has something to do
with what we eat and how we eat it. Our worldview of who, what, and how we are
can often be summarized by what is on our forks. If we’re devout Jewish or
Muslim, we don’t eat pork. If we lean toward the liberal end of the spectrum we
may only eat locally harvested food and meat harvested under humane conditions.
If we’re radical conservative, we may disavow all forms of government jurisdiction
as related to our food and prefer to hunt our own meat and game. If we’re
educated, we may have a tendency to eat more healthily. If we’re not educated,
we may not.
4. Why
is studying/knowing history important?
We are
apt to make mistakes; it is our nature as humans. If we see the past, we can
learn from our mistakes and perhaps not repeat them. We can also be thankful of
progress and change if we are aware of what existed in the past. History is a
spectrum, and as soon as a moment has passed, it is history, but still has
relevance both today and tomorrow.
5. What
is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
I
concentrated on British history at UGA because I was an extreme anglophile. But
now, I like digging deeper into American food and culture, specifically
Southern food and culture. I devour nonfiction micro-views of subjects, as
well. Books like Cod: A Biography of the
Fish that Changed the World or Salt:
A World History by Mark Kurlansky or Four
Fishes by Paul Greenberg are a stimulating combination of history and present. I recently read Sugar, Salt, and Fat by Michael Moss, which is basically the history
about how food giants hooked us on, well, sugar, salt, and fat. It’s a very
modern history – and is a theme that is very relevant and in action today.
6. Why
are food and history so connected, especially in the South?
The
study of Southern food and food history helps us understand more about what we
eat and the foodways we embrace. Why do Southerners eat okra? How did it come
to this country? The study of food and food history is also a lens to examine
various human experience and provokes a deeper understanding of our overlapping
and evolving cultures and societies. Traditionally, Southern cooking was
actually a vegetable-based cuisine. This is the fertile land of okra, green
beans, tomatoes, and corn. This diet was not remotely for health reasons. The
plant-based diet was due to poverty for both black and white. That bit of
fatback in the greens might have been the only meat in the pot. Southerners
grew their own food and harvested wild game and seafood from the forests,
rivers, and sea. Now, poverty affects us in different ways. Eating home-cooked
fried chicken and biscuits isn’t what made the South so fat. It’s poverty. When
someone is on limited income, they buy cheap food. And foods that are cheap
tend to have a lot of sugar, salt, and fat. The South has some of the highest
poverty rates in the nation. This is our history and only by learning from our
history can we change.
7.
Southern and soul cooking seem to be hot topics in foodie culture now. Why is
that?
Because
it tastes good!! First, however, I would say that Southern cooking and Soul
food cooking are not interchangeable and are not the same. I would say that all
Soul food is Southern, but not all Southern food is Soul food. Southern food is
born from many areas, people, and economic levels. Southern food is not one
food, but many regional foods combined. It originated from a complex
combination of Native American, European, and African cultures. There’s the Low
Country cooking of the Atlantic coast that showcases rice and seafood, Deep South
cooking that makes use of corn, the mountain cooking of Appalachia, French and
Spanish influences that permeates the cuisine of Louisiana. The food of the
South is rich and diverse. I think that in these times of crisis that Southern
food is a comfort food. People have simply wanted comfort. Our agrarian-based
table has created a culinary tradition really like no other in the US, and that
food is comforting.
