Southern Cooking
June 29, 2010
•Le Cordon Bleu
•Atlanta
• 0 Comments
It’s a place of history and tradition. It’s a region known for beauty and conflict. Its music and literature put a song in the American vocabulary. It’s the American South.
Beginning at the Mason-Dixon Line, extending all the way to Florida, and stretching as far west as Texas, the American South is a large part of the American landscape, with a cultural influence as big as its geography. Despite the influence the American South has had on our politics, music, and literature, there is probably nothing more revered about it than its food.
A quick look at a Southern cookbook draws a detailed picture of American history. With Scottish, British, Spanish, Irish, French, German, Native American, and African influences, Southern cuisine is a worldly cuisine that is also uniquely American. No other American cuisine can boast of such a broad reach of influences. And no other American cuisine does more to describe the rich tapestry of American life and history.
It’s Not Just What You Put in the PotBecause of those many influences, we might not be able to define exactly what Southern cooking is, but we sure know it when we taste it. Many people say that’s because Southern food is made with more love than any other type of food.
It’s said that it’s not just what you put in the pot, but what you’ve got in the heart that counts in Southern cooking. That thought can be traced back to the days of slavery, when slaves had to make do with castoff ingredients to survive. Not only did they survive but they were able to transform those lowly ingredients into hearty and delicious dishes that are still eaten today.
Southern cooking also has a tradition of being family oriented. Big breakfasts of biscuits and gravy with homemade marmalades and grandma’s fried chicken on Sunday cement our feelings of warmth, love, and nostalgia. It is very easy to see how most Southern foods have become comfort food – even to those who’ve never been to the South, much less grown up there.
Types of Southern CookingInstead of a standalone style of cooking, Southern cuisine better described as a catch-all term for a variety of cuisines and cooking styles found throughout the American South. Those styles include soul food, barbecue, Tex Mex, Creole, Cajun, Lowcountry, and Floribbean, a Caribbean influenced cuisine found in Florida.
While you may not have grown up in the South, you certainly grew up eating some type of Southern cuisine. Dishes commonly associated with Southern cooking include:
- Southern-Fried Chicken
- Country Ham
- Hominy Grits
- Gumbo
- Pecan Pie
- Buttermilk Biscuits
- Bread Pudding
- Andouille Sausage
- Greens
- Black Eyed Peas
- Pulled Pork
- Sweet Tea
- Fried Pickles
- Red Eye Gravy
- Chicken Fried Steak
Throw in a couple more desserts like peach cobbler and sweet potato pie, add an after dinner cocktail like a mint julep and you’ve got yourself a real Southern-style shindig.
So the next time you are looking for a little snack while you are reading Flannery O’Connor, listening to some jazz, or watching a NASCAR race (all born in the South) it might be a good time for chow-chow or pimento cheese spread. What? You’ve never heard of them? Well, it just might be time to head down south for a visit.
This article is presented by Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Atlanta. Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Atlanta offers culinary arts and pâtisserie and baking training programs in the Atlanta, Georgia area. To learn more about the class offerings, please visit
Chefs.edu/Atlanta for more information.