| John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways
Alliance, is enjoying great critical acclaim
these days, after a year on the road enjoying
lots of apple pie and fried chicken. Those
foods are the subjects of the first in a series
of books by Edge celebrating iconic American
foods; Apple Pie and Fried Chicken, both out
this October, will be followed next summer
with Hamburgers and Fries and next fall with
Donuts. Each book in the series, published
by G.P. Putnam's Sons, is subtitled "An
American Story," which, Edge says, is
no small matter. "Through food, I'm trying
to understand how we define ourselves as Americans."
To do that, Edge traveled across the country
in search of the best apple pie and fried
chicken recipes, restaurants, and tips for
home cooks. What has emerged are books that
combine those elements with travel writing,
cultural history, and food folklore in a
manner that "transcends" any fleeting
obsessions or trends, says Jennifer Hershey,
vice president and editorial director at
Putnam.
"One food writer who read the books
told me that they're 'instant classics,'
" Hershey says. "The critical
reception has been tremendous. He has something
to say and such a singular voice, and people
love his work." One reviewer, in fact,
wrote in the October issue of Details magazine
that "chicken seared in hot fat is
to Edge what the white whale was to Ahab:
an obsession verging on metaphor."
"I want that on my tombstone,"
Edge says.
Any epitaph for Edge is sure to mention
something about food, and most likely something
about Southern food. Edge began examining
and thinking about Southern food customs
while earning his bachelor's and then his
master's in Southern Studies at Ole Miss;
as the director of the Southern Foodways
Alliance and the author of two previous
books focused on Southern food--A Gracious
Plenty (HP Books) and Southern Belly (Hill
Street Press)-he has carved out a name for
himself as one of the country's foremost
authorities on the topic. But selecting
Edge to write about foods central to the
idea of Americanness rather than Southernness
was a safe bet for Putnam. "He knows
a lot about Southern food," Hershey
says. "But he's equally astute about
food in other parts of the country and was
really careful to pick subjects [for the
series] that are truly national foods."
And of course, Edge's reputation preceded
him. A regular contributor to Gourmet, Saveur,
and the Oxford American magazines, he was
this year a finalist for the MFK Fisher
Distinguished Writing Award, given by the
James Beard Foundation, and his writing
has been featured in each of the past four
editions of The Best Food Writing, published
annually by Marlowe and Company. Additionally,
in 2003 he was listed among the Financial
Times' "20 Southerners to Watch,"
for his work with SFA.
"I hope the books are well received,"
Edge says. "They're profiles of people
and places; they're portraits of American
identity through portraits of our food habits.
This is my attempt to tell the American
story by way of iconic foods."
Jennifer Southall
|
