Cornbread Nation 7: The Best of Southern Food Writing

Cornbread Nation Series #7

by Francis Lam (Contributor), Daniel Patterson (Contributor), Susan Orlean (Contributor)

How does Southern food look from the outside? The form is caught in constantly dueling stereotypes: It’s so often imagined as either the touchingly down-home feast or the heartstopping health scourge of a nation. But as any Southern transplant will tell you once they’ve spent time in the region, Southerners share their lives in food, with a complex mix of stories of belonging and not belonging and of traditions that form identities of many kinds.

Cornbread Nation 7, edited by Francis Lam, brings together the best Southern food writing from recent years, including well-known food writers such as Sara Roahen and Brett Anderson, a couple of classic writers such as Langston Hughes, and some newcomers. The collection, divided into five sections (“Come In and Stay Awhile,” “Provisions and Providers,” “Five Ways of Looking at Southern Food,” “The South, Stepping Out,” and “Southerners Going Home”), tells the stories both of Southerners as they move through the world and of those who ended up in the South. It explores from where and from whom food comes, and it looks at what food means to culture and how it relates to home.

Genres: Food, Food Writing, Cooking

284 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had read a little book about fried chicken written by John T. Edge and loved his writing so much I decided to find another by him. I ordered this book. Well, he really doesn't write a dang thing in this collection of essays which have something (some not much of that something) to do about food.

It was still an interesting read, but not as good as expected.

My favorite thing to learn from this book was about Deep Springs College: An alternative 2-year college founded on academics, manual labor and self governance. The mention of this college is brief, but was titillating and I quickly became consumed with the sidebar of discovering what the heck it was all about. And THEN (serendipitously) I won the book, California, by Edan Lepucki through First Reads! And I'll be damn if that school that is referred to is not based on Deep Springs!! I love things like that!

[Georgeanne Yehling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too damn good. Celebrates the many ways Southerners have come to be just that--Southerners. What makes us Southern? What makes FOOD Southern?

It does not ignore the uglier facets of the South. It does not attempt to bury them, but uncover them (using culinary context) to move toward a better South.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little stories and essays about food. I loved it! Hard to read in one sitting.

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first read in this series and it is a wonderful and engaging collection of diverse writers about food. I am going to seek them all out. Recommended.