‘SOUTH IS HUGE’
Yearlong tour reveals world beyond biscuits
The South is what happens when Louisiana Cajun shrimp meet Vietnamese flavors from Texas. In a single bite, the region comes to focus in ways that defy tidy labels and outsider clichés.
Sure, there are biscuits and grits, fried okra and sweet tea to be relished. But if there is one thing Southern author and chef Virginia Willis found as she traveled thousands of miles throughout her native region, it’s a simple truth that defines both territory and demographics: “The South is huge.”
Huge as in global. Huge as in the flavors of those “Spicy Asian Cajun BBQ Shrimp” Willis will cook at The Regional Kitchen Sunday. That recipe and three others from the Sunday supper menu are featured in her most recent book, “Secrets of the Southern Table: A Food Lover’s Tour of the Global South,” published May 1 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. (See those recipes below.)
The road map that led to the book is dotted with people and dishes as diverse as they are Southern.
“I wanted to show the South that I know exists. I wanted to show the diversity, the broadest, richest, fullest picture that I could about Southern foodways,” Willis said by phone from Augusta, Georgia, her birthplace, where she was visiting family.
For nine months, Willis and photographer Angie Mosier traveled throughout 11 states, catching the better part of four seasons. Originally, the book was meant to enhance a planned public television series featuring farmers, harvesters and other food-world protagonists across the South. But while the TV project hit a snag, Willis’ book would become an ample repository of those stories.
“The Southern food of Louisiana is different from the Southern food of Mississippi, which is next door. The coastal cuisine of Louisiana is different from the coastal cuisine of North Carolina,” says Willis, who resides in Atlanta and western Massachusetts.
While traveling through Florida, the James Beard Award-winning author explored the Greek flavors of Tarpon Springs, traced the quickly changing demographics of South Florida and soaked up the seafood traditions of North Florida. In many ways, Willis says, it is Florida’s diverse “circles of influence” — the term she uses to describe the South’s rising populations — that make the state thoroughly Southern.
While some may want to believe some parts of Florida to be detached from the South, Willis is here to challenge that.
“That flies in the face of everything I’m trying to say. So much of Southern food is grown in Florida. Think about it — tomatoes and corn and okra,” she says.
But despite the larger region’s diversity, Willis found common threads in her travels.
“This may sound like a cliché, but I’m going to say it anyway: We visited so many different people from all different income levels and education levels. And everyone that accepted me into their home asked, ‘What can I bring you to eat? What can I get you to drink?’” she says. “There really is Southern hospitality.”
The following recipes and author notes are reprinted from Virginia Willis’ recent cookbook, “Secrets of the Southern Table: A Food Lover’s Tour of the Global South,” with permission of its publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.