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How one academically
grounded nonprofit impacts
economies, changes lives,
and drives progress in the
changing American South.
SEPTEMBER 2018
ThriveTable of Contents
I. We Are One
Foreword
II. Measuring Impact
On a warm day in July of 1999, three dozen chefs, cooks, writers, and academics met in Birmingham,
Alabama, to found a nonprofit that would document, study, and explore the diverse food cultures
of the changing American South. III. Super Spreaders
That night they dined on rabbit pilau at Highlands Bar and Grill, the restaurant owned by Frank and IV. What is Southern?
Pardis Stitt that helped kindle the American regional food renaissance.
V. It’s Complicated
Since that first gathering two decades ago, the Southern Foodways Alliance has become a
powerful force at the intersection of food, culture, history, and fellowship. When SFA showcases
a cook, farmer, or artisan, media coverage often spikes significantly. Many members credit the
VI. Academic Cachet
support and collective wisdom of the SFA for thriving careers and businesses.
VII. The Tonight Show
Members are drawn to the spiritual sanctuary of SFA events, where they feel both nurtured and Starring Johnny Carson
challenged. Many say that SFA media and programming has driven seismic shifts in their thinking
about identity and their relationship to the region. VIII. Where To?
SFA boldly explores the complex and often treacherous history of the South, delving into slavery,
poverty, hunger, and the oppression of women, minorities, immigrants, and LGBTQ people. SFA
dives into these loaded subjects with academic rigor, solemnity, joy, and a relentless drive to
cultivate a better future while chronicling a tragic past.
This work was independently commissioned, researched, and written. Financial support for
research came from Brook and Pam Smith of Louisville, Kentucky, who wanted to document the
unique DNA of the Southern Foodways Alliance and the ways the organization creates value and
impacts lives across the South and beyond.
The SFA community generously shared their stories and insights through more than 50 hours
of interviews. Thanks to Kristie Abney, Rosalind Bentley, Scott Blackwell, Ashley Christensen,
Theresa Chu, Mark Essig, Marcie Cohen Ferris, Asha Gomez, Will Harris, Meherwan Irani, Sam
Jones, Ann Marshall, Nancie McDermott, Angie Mosier, Justin Nystrom, Julian Rankin, Ashanté
Reese, Rodney Scott, Pardis Stitt, and Sean Wilson for sharing.
SFA leadership was also gracious with interviews and data, and for that I thank John T. Edge,
Melissa Hall, Mary Beth Lasseter, and the rest of the folks who keep SFA running.
Any errors, omissions and oversights are solely mine.
Mary Jane Credeur
Decatur, GA
September 20184 THRIVE I A W H I T E PA P E R O N T H E I N F L U E N C E O F T H E S O U T H E R N F O O D W AY S A L L I A N C E THRIVE I A W H I T E PA P E R O N T H E I N F L U E N C E O F T H E S O U T H E R N F O O D W AY S A L L I A N C E 5
I. ‘We Are One’
Since elementary school, “Someone shook my hand and “Instead of guessing how many “For me to be compared to people who are at 5-star resorts,
Rodney Scott has worked in the said ‘Thank you for the work you hogs we need on a Wednesday,
family business, feeding logs of do,’” Scott said, recalling the I can check the system and it places like Blackberry Farm, I just can’t believe it,” Scott said.
hardwood into burn barrels to New York City event. “And I was tells me,” Scott said. “It shows “I always thought we were divided. But some of those chefs
make coals over which whole like ‘Wow, they respect it.’” me how many pounds of meat
hogs roast for 12 hours or more. come off the hog, how much red were looking at me like, ‘Wow, you stayed up all night and
Other media outlets began to pepper we’re going through, cooked this beast and put it on a plate.’”
For years, people have been take notice, and Scott started how many pots of sauce we use
driving from all over South receiving invitations to cook at per week. It takes the mental That win helped Scott realize that there is Media mentions of Rodney Scott jumped
Carolina to the rural town of events all over the South. By pressure off me. Waste is down. just as much merit in his kind of cooking as nearly threefold in the first eight months of
Hemingway for a plate from then, sales at Scott’s were up And profits are a lot higher.” that of any fine dining chef. 2018 compared to the same period a year
Scott’s Bar-B-Que, set in a by more than 50% since Edge earlier, Factiva data show.
cinderblock building painted wrote the article in The New York Fellow pitmaster Jones, who “We are all the same. We are one. I’m
white and trimmed in robin’s Times, Scott said. recently branched out from his starting to accept that a little bit more,” Scott credits SFA for giving him time and
egg blue. family’s Ayden, North Carolina- Scott says, referencing a smooth R&B track space to nurture his relationships with Pihakis,
When the restaurant’s pithouse based restaurant Skylight Inn to by Frankie Beverly & Maze called “We Are Jones, and dozens of other restaurant leaders
In 2009, John T. Edge, the burned in 2013, a group of SFA open Sam Jones BBQ, had this One.” He often cranks that track when he’s and writers across the nation. Without them,
director of the Southern friends including Nick Pihakis of to say: Brace for the one-star tending the pits. he says he probably wouldn’t have had the
Foodways Alliance, wrote a Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q and Sam reviews on Yelp. courage and the means to go out on his own.
column about Scott’s Bar-B-Que Jones of Skylight Inn BBQ (they Days after the James Beard win, Scott
for The New York Times. In it, call themselves the “Fatback Sooner or later it will happen, announced plans to open a second location
he praised the “ever-elusive Collective”) rallied and helped Jones warned. Maybe someone in Birmingham, Alabama, in partnership with
authenticity” of their slow- him devise a plan to rebuild. was cranky that day or just being Pihakis, a longtime SFA supporter who sold
smoked whole hog barbecue. Scott visited several cities mean spirited. Ignore those Jim ‘N Nick’s to Atlanta private equity firm
across the South and cooked people. And if something was Roark Capital Group in 2017.
The article ran on Wednesday, whole hogs to raise money, and legitimately wrong, make it right.
June 10, when Scott’s was closed. his journey was chronicled by No matter what, don’t let it drag
They only cooked on Thursday, NPR, Charleston’s The Post and you down, Jones said.
Friday, and Saturday back then. Courier, The Local Palate and
When the restaurant opened for others. It was profound advice to Scott, Rodney Scott Media Coverage
its usual hours that week, sales who was still finding his footing
jumped at least 20% and maybe Articles mentioning Rodney as a sole proprietor after a
2018 PROJECTION 201
more – Scott doesn’t remember Scott rose tenfold from just five lifetime under the umbrella of a
for sure because the restaurant in 2011 to 69 in 2017, according family-run enterprise that offered 2017 48
didn’t use a point-of-sale system to Factiva, the Dow Jones data both protection and constraints.
at the time. service that scours thousands It also spoke to an undercurrent 2016 59
of print and digital media of doubt about striking out on
“That changed our entire lives. publications. his own and getting comfortable 2015 26
The piece ran in the morning and with the pressure and scrutiny
2014 28
the phone line was busy all day In 2017, Scott opened his own that comes with the spotlight: Am
long. It just rang and rang,” place in Charleston, South I good enough? 2013 40
Scott said. Carolina: Rodney Scott’s BBQ.
The advice and wisdom freely In May of 2018, Scott became the 2012 15
Shortly after the Times piece, the given from close friends in SFA first African-American to win a
SFA produced a short film “Cut/ was clutch, he says. James Beard Foundation Award 2011 5
Chop/Cook” by Joe York—a for Best Chef Southeast, and only 2010 2
nod to the cutting and chopping Pihakis invested in the enterprise, the second barbecue pitmaster
of wood followed by all-night and also convinced Scott to start ever to win a chef award. 2009 1
cooking of the hogs. The film was using a point-of-sale system by
shown during the 2010 Big Apple Square to track data on top- 2008 1
Barbecue Block Party in New York selling items and supplies, and
City, at which Scott cooked the also integrate with bookkeeping 2007 2
food he knew best. and accounting systems.
BAR CHARTS THROUGHOUT INCLUDE FULL-YEAR 2018 PROJECTIONS BASED ON FACTIVA FIGURES YEAR-TO-DATE THROUGH 8/27/2018.6 THRIVE I A W H I T E PA P E R O N T H E I N F L U E N C E O F T H E S O U T H E R N F O O D W AY S A L L I A N C E THRIVE I A W H I T E PA P E R O N T H E I N F L U E N C E O F T H E S O U T H E R N F O O D W AY S A L L I A N C E 7
II. Measuring Impact
Scott’s ascendency is an example of the rising Often they join fellow SFA members at food SFA has created intense loyalty to the might not be fond of footnotes. Even meals
influence of the SFA, which is now a major and wine festivals or SFA events, and they organization, which impacts its financial are planned so that they are contextually
player at the nexus of history, culture, and drop in for visits with SFA friends when they success and stability. appropriate.
progress. travel across the region and nation. They go
out of their way to stay in touch with each SFA now counts 1,875 souls as members and SFA is an institute of the Center for the Study
Although food may seem central to SFA other, texting about something funny or reaches a much broader audience through of Southern Culture at the University of
work, it’s really more of an entry point for asking advice. A tight web of influence and social media: 44,000 Facebook followers, Mississippi. It is housed in the central rotunda
contemplation, exploration, and discourse. trust connects members. 45,000 Instagram followers, 35,000 Twitter at Barnard Observatory, not far from the
People flock to SFA to learn from experts, followers, and 47,000 unique monthly website Circle where a deadly 1962 riot erupted in
and also from each other through casual visitors. The annual budget is $1.4 million protest of the admission of the first African-
conversations over cocktails or lunch.
“They’re like summer excluding events, which are designed to American student.
camps for grown-ups,” roughly break even.
They look forward to getting the newest The University benefits from a symbiotic
edition of Gravy, SFA’s quarterly award-
Angie Mosier, who Only 5% of the budget comes from relationship with SFA in which academic
winning journal, and listening to the latest owns an Atlanta food membership dues. Philanthropy funds the rigor, cachet, and media attention flow
episode of the podcast, also called Gravy. organization. The largest single source is an both ways. The school manages finances,
They watch the short films and documentaries
styling and photography auction, hosted each January by Blackberry human resources, healthcare, and retirement
SFA commissions, and attend oral history and company called Placemat Farm, that yields $200,000 or more each year. benefits for SFA staff.
film workshops hosted by SFA. When a fellow
member publishes a book, they organize or
Productions, says of SFA One donor has made two $1 million gifts To give back, and to drive foodways
attend author signing parties. When an SFA events. “People you’ve to SFA operations, and another has made scholarship, SFA has endowed two faculty
member restaurant hosts a fundraiser event, a $1.25 million contribution. More than 20 positions. One of those professors, Catarina
they drive for hours or book plane tickets to
known for so long, people donors have made gifts in the $25,000 to Passidomo, received a Fulbright US Scholar
attend and show their support. you love, and you’re so $100,0000 range, and gifts in this range have award in 2018 to travel to Peru to teach and
consistently gotten larger and more frequent conduct research on post-colonial Peruvian
Intense social bonding happens at SFA events,
excited to see them. It’s the over time. SFA operations are largely foodways and how cuisine helped establish
when busy restaurateurs, farmers, writers, best kind of fellowship.” underwritten by donations from companies a nation-brand. SFA funds two Nathalie
and academics, who normally have a hard including Billy Reid, Lodge Manufacturing, Dupree Graduate Fellows, and by 2020 SFA
time peeling away from day jobs, carve out The community extends far beyond events. Royal Cup Coffee, and McIlhenny Company, will endow a senior leadership position in its
a few days to spend with peers. They share the maker of Tabasco®. own organization.
insights and tips, support each other through “We’re mostly head down and working; the
struggles, and celebrate triumphs. restaurant business is all-consuming,” said At SFA’s core is scholarship and an “Think of the great programs that bring
Pardis Stitt of Birmingham, who along with academic grounding that underpins all attention to the university, and pound for
Active members trust each other so much that her husband, Frank Stitt, owns Highlands Bar of its work. All work is richly researched pound SFA is a tremendous bargain,” said
they invite people they may have only met a & Grill and sister restaurants Chez Fonfon, and contains historical context, and oral Justin Nystrom, an associate professor of
few times to sleep in their spare bedrooms Bottega, and Bottega Café. “So many of my histories and documentary films capture the history at Loyola University in New Orleans,
when they’re out of town. adult friendships are because of SFA. Writers, circumstances of the subject’s upbringing Director of the Center for the Study of New
chefs, people we would never meet or see and family history, plus the corresponding Orleans, and SFA member and contributor.
Members will open up to a stranger introduced otherwise.” political, economic, cultural, and social
by an SFA leader and share personal stories climates that defined an era. “SFA raises its own money and brings all this
about painful family dynamics, failed business That kind of fidelity is rare among nonprofits. really positive attention to the university. It’s
ventures, and the impacts of racism. They do Supporters of a community food bank, Although it could publish its books through hard to quantify it, but you know it’s there.
this with complete faith that if SFA trusts this the Southern Poverty Law Center, or local any house, SFA leaders choose to publish There is enormous return on investment on
new person, then they should too. chapters of organizations such as Habitat for through an academic press in partnership what they’re doing.”
Humanity don’t usually know each other so with the University of Georgia. Every part
In a conversation about career trajectories, intimately or have such weighty professional of its programming is original and deeply With its professionally produced and
members often name a handful of close SFA influence on each other. considered, and events are populated with academically-focused content, one could
friends who have had an impact on their thinkers and scholars from across many mistake SFA for a digital media company that
business. academic disciplines who try to make their happens to be a nonprofit.
material engaging even when the audience8 THRIVE I A W H I T E PA P E R O N T H E I N F L U E N C E O F T H E S O U T H E R N F O O D W AY S A L L I A N C E THRIVE I A W H I T E PA P E R O N T H E I N F L U E N C E O F T H E S O U T H E R N F O O D W AY S A L L I A N C E 9
Managing Editor Sara Camp “I am constantly A book of poetry titled Vinegar In 2017, she reported and produced a Gravy podcast and wrote a companion print Gravy article
Milam directs SFA content & Char, edited by Sandra about her great aunt Lucille Burton, a Civil Rights movement activist who fed and housed young
creation, with assistance from pulling up and Beasley, debuted in the fall men and women at her home in Albany, Georgia.
a team of contract writers, showing SFA of 2018, showing the breadth
editors, designers, and other and range of what Southern Bentley says the joy and fulfillment that came from that project, coupled with support from Edge
contributors. SFA’s lead oral content in class. foodways means. This sort of and other SFA colleagues, encouraged her to advance plans to write a book and reach new
historian Annemarie Anderson It supports my work is a defining difference audiences.
manages a team of contract oral for the SFA. How many other
historians who are paid well for scholarship and food-focused nonprofits publish “When you’re doing the work you should be doing, there’s nothing better,” Bentley said.
their work. my teaching,” books of poetry?
Media coverage of barbecue pitmaster Sam Jones has more than tripled since an SFA-
SFA media products cover many said Ferris, author SFA hosts dozens of events commissioned short film about him debuted in 2014, from about 20 media mentions per year to
genres. of The Edible each year including the Fall more than 70 each of the past two years, Factiva data show. Through August of 2018, Sam Jones
Symposium, which was founded has already accrued 68 stories, meaning media attention is on track to double for the year. The
The Gravy podcast has been South. “Everything in 1998, a year before SFA itself momentum has helped drive traffic to his new restaurant, where sales were up by double digits in
downloaded more than 2.4 million resonates because came into existence. In 2012, the first half of the year.
times as of August 2018. The when the theme was barbeque,
professionally designed, edited it’s excellent, well the event sold out less than a
“There would be no Sam Jones BBQ without SFA,” Jones said.
and produced Gravy publication produced, well minute after ticket sales were
typically runs 70-plus pages of announced. Two years later, “I would still be the guy making your sandwich and slaw, but I
essays, poetry, personal opinion, designed. Students, when the theme was race
wouldn’t be doing it at the Charleston Wine and Food Festival
journalism, and occasional recipes. if they look at it and relations, the Fall Symposium
The James Beard Foundation sold out in less than 30 seconds. or Big Apple or any of these other places without SFA.”
named Gravy, the collective print think it’s a lame To meet the demand, SFA added
and podcast forms, publication of website or bad a Winter Symposium and has
167
SFA directed an oral history project in 2010 on Atlanta’s diverse Buford Highway corridor, a 30-
the year in 2015. increased the size of the Summer mile stretch of restaurants and stores run by immigrants from Mexico, Korea, China, El Salvador,
technology or bad Symposium. and other nations. That same year SFA staged a Summer Symposium on Buford Highway, and
SFA has gathered nearly 1,000 film quality, they the theme of its Fall Symposium was The Global South. Since then, media coverage of Buford
oral histories over the years, and, The SFA’s biggest impact Highway restaurants has more than doubled from about 40 articles to more than 100 in each 2017
has produced 125 documentary tune out. The quality is arguably the exposure and the first eight months of 2018, according to Factiva.
films. SFA films have screened on of everything is it generates for the often
PBS across the nation, and at film unknown or little-known cooks,
festivals such as the Nashville really good.” restaurateurs, farmers, and Buford Highway Sam Jones Media Coverage
Film Festival, the Sidewalk Film artisans featured in SFA podcast
Festival in Birmingham, and SFA compensates those writers, episodes, films, oral histories, Restaurants Media Coverage
Indie Grits in Columbia, South directors, and producers well. journal articles, and at events.
Carolina. The organization also invests
in future contributors through 106
SFA media is so well produced writing workshops, oral history
Careers and businesses often
flourish after attention from 102 102
that Marcie Cohen Ferris workshops, film workshops, and SFA. That impact extends to the
often incorporates it into her graduate student symposia. writers, historians, and archivists 88
curriculum at the University who gather and produce 80
of North Carolina at Chapel The 2018 releases of SFA’s book material for the SFA. 76 74 73 73
Hill, where she taught in the series with the University of 71
American Studies department Georgia Press included Catfish Rosalind Bentley, a journalist at
before retiring in 2018. SFA Dream by Julian Rankin about the Atlanta Journal-Constitution 57 58
encourages use of its materials African-American catfish farmer and a SFA contributor and
and while many academic and processer Ed Scott’s fight member, recently completed a 49
producers charge usage fees, for his family farm and racial Master of Fine Arts in narrative 40
SFA grants free classroom usage justice and Mississippi Delta, nonfiction from the University of
and distributes all content and Creole Italian by Loyola’s
Nystrom, about how Sicilian
Georgia, where Edge was her
23 24 23 26
digitally at no cost.
immigrants shaped New Orleans
mentor.
19
food culture. 13 11
6 5
2018 Projection
2018 Projection
2009
2009
2008
2008
2007
2007
2010
2010
2016
2016
2014
2014
2012
2012
2013
2013
2017
2017
2011
2011
2015
201510 THRIVE I A W H I T E PA P E R O N T H E I N F L U E N C E O F T H E S O U T H E R N F O O D W AY S A L L I A N C E THRIVE I A W H I T E PA P E R O N T H E I N F L U E N C E O F T H E S O U T H E R N F O O D W AY S A L L I A N C E 11
III. Super Spreaders
Joining SFA doesn’t mean carte blanche The following summer, Gomez closed When someone jokingly plucked a sprig of basil during a party at Edge’s house and stuck it in
access to writers, chefs, and other industry Cardamom Hill at the height of its popularity. a can of suds, he discovered how well that herb pairs with certain beers. Fullsteam’s Southern
power players. To become a part of the fabric The stress of running a restaurant wasn’t Basil Farmhouse Ale is now a bestseller. Media mentions of the brewery have risen more than
of SFA, members say you must have your heart a good fit. She refocused her energy on a threefold since 2010, from about 20 articles per year to 70 or more in recent years.
and your head in the right place and adopt new concept, The Third Space, a kitchen
the inclusive and giving spirit that is SFA’s and event space that she rents for corporate Ann Marshall and Scott Blackwell of High Wire Distilling say SFA led them to Glenn Roberts of
lifeblood. teambuilding events. Other chefs often rent it Anson Mills, who casually suggested they try making whiskey with an old strain of corn that was
to work on recipes or do photo shoots. Twice popular with moonshiners.
That may mean helping organize events, a month, Gomez hosts pop-up dinners that
booking tables at fundraiser dinners, typically sell out within minutes.
attending festivals where SFA films are Fullsteam Brewery Media Coverage
screened, showing up for author signings Profit margins at The Third Space are many
when SFA members publish books, or simply times higher than they were at Cardamom Hill, 112
staying active in the SFA calendar of events. Gomez says.
People don’t—or shouldn’t—join SFA Her new business affords Gomez time to
to generate business. But that’s often a travel with her young son, work on another 81 77 78
byproduct of being active in the organization. cookbook, and advocate for causes such
62 66
SFA members are quick to refer business as microloans that will empower women in
to each other, call on each other for developing countries to breed livestock or
56 56
recommendations, or ask for help. It’s a trusted grow gardens to end hunger. “I want people,
and vetted network of people who have especially women, to know that there is an
already passed muster with other respected alternative model to opening a full-blown 23
members. restaurant,” Gomez said. “It’s not good for
10
us to get bogged down by unsustainable
0 3
Asha Gomez once ran a luxury spa business models.”
in Atlanta that also served healthy meals as
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018 PROJECTION
part of the experience. It folded during the Steven Satterfield, an SFA member and chef
2008-09 financial crisis, but clients kept talking of Miller Union in Atlanta, recently rented The
about the terrific food. When she opened a Third Space and hired Mosier of Placemat
restaurant called Cardamom Hill, her mother’s Productions to style food and shoot photos for
fried chicken was a bestseller. his new cookbook.
Jimmy Red Corn was nearly extinct, but SFA donor Anson Mills helped them find access to seed.
An invitation to cook at the SFA’s 2013 Fall That interconnectedness often pumps revenue Turns out it’s a great grain for whiskey, with a nutty flavor and creamy mouthfeel. Their Jimmy Red
Symposium made her a nervous wreck, until from one business to another within the SFA whiskey is a runaway hit that sells out almost immediately, and has been written about by NPR,
friend and fellow SFA member Anne Quatrano network, which is another enormous benefit Wine & Spirits magazine, and the Houston Chronicle, among others.
of Bacchanalia and Star Provisions in Atlanta for members.
offered to help. Among other dishes, Gomez They’ve debated whether to release all of it to meet demand, or hold some back to age longer
cooked chicken country captain, a curry dish Sean Wilson, the president of Fullsteam and develop a more complex flavor. They’re doing the latter.
served with rice that has roots in her native Brewing in Durham, North Carolina, got his
India and has long been popular in her SFA start pouring sample batches of beer at a Marshall and Blackwell have made SFA friends so quickly and readily that they often host SFA
adopted Georgia. Fall Symposium. houseguests even when they’re out of town. They call their spare room the Gravy Boat.
“You walk into a room and 400 people get to
their feet and give you thunderous applause
and these are the best food people in the
Southeast,” Gomez said. “That moment was
so powerful. It gave me wings and confidence.
It was one of the best moments of my career.”12 THRIVE I A W H I T E PA P E R O N T H E I N F L U E N C E O F T H E S O U T H E R N F O O D W AY S A L L I A N C E THRIVE I A W H I T E PA P E R O N T H E I N F L U E N C E O F T H E S O U T H E R N F O O D W AY S A L L I A N C E 13
IV. What is Southern?
“We consider it a family reunion. We do business with a SFA redefines what Southern means and what He thought he’d meet new farmers or
the modern South is. suppliers. He was shocked when speakers
number of people there now, but we don’t take our business shared raw stories about racism and prejudice,
cards with us,” Marshall says of the Fall Symposium and of Chef and restaurateur Meherwan Irani had and also spoke passionately about embracing
heard about SFA for years, and assumed it was their Southernness and redefining the modern
the social networks they have grown. “Its success lies in its a club for chefs who held fancy and indulgent South.
authenticity. People do things organically, because it’s right dinners.
“The ground shifted below me,” Irani said.
or they’re passionate about it. Not because they’re gaining Born in London to progressive Indian parents, “The way I saw myself, my identity in the
financial success from it.” Irani grew up near Mumbai. He taught himself South. I’m no longer an Indian chef who
to cook after moving to Columbia, South happens to cook and live in the South. I’m a
Carolina, for graduate school in the 1990s. Southern chef who happens to be from India.”
Another example of the SFA revenue cycle In 2009, SFA produced a short film about Harris
is White Oak Pastures in the south Georgia called “Cud,” which Whole Foods screened
After a stint in sales and management in Irani wanted to celebrate other brown-
town of Bluffton. Will Harris inherited in stores across the nation and has also been
San Francisco, Irani and his wife Molly Irani skinned people. He joined Bhatt, Gomez,
the 150-year-old family farm after it had screened at festivals across the country. Since
moved to Asheville, North Carolina, to raise Maneet Chauhan (owner of several Nashville
been conventionally managed for several that film debuted, media coverage of White
their daughter in a slower-paced city. When restaurants), and Cheetie Kumar (chef and
decades with insecticides, antibiotics, and Oak Pastures has increased fivefold and the
the 2008 financial crisis wrecked the luxury owner of Garland in Raleigh) to host a cultural
other invasive methods common in today’s farm is regularly featured in dozens of articles
homebuilder he’d been working for, he did exposition and dinner at Chai Pani Decatur in
industrialized food system. per year in publications such as The New York
some soul searching. January of 2018 that benefitted the SFA.
Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Forbes,
He converted the entire 3,000+ acres into and Bloomberg News.
One day, it struck him: do what you know. He The chefs blended Indian and Southern
a natural and holistically run operation.
would open a restaurant. staples: Kerala fried chicken (sourced from
Animals don’t receive hormone implants or White Oak does more than $20 million in
White Oak Pastures), shrimp over an upma
sub-therapeutic antibiotics, and they aren’t revenue per year and has 150 employees as of
His wife was skeptical. Irani had no restaurant porridge made of grits, and gingered cabbage
artificially inseminated. Instead of herbicides, mid-2018, Harris says. That’s up from about $1
training, but when he scribbled out a menu in with collard greens.
ground cover crops help keep down weeds. million a year in the early 2000s when the farm
20 minutes, she was sold.
had just three employees and was 1,000 acres.
They called it Brown in the South. It was a
Harris affectionately calls his cattle athletes,
He opened a small chaat house called Chai sold-out sensation, covered by Food & Wine,
and they are noticeably leaner and more “We wouldn’t be where we are today if not for
Pani in 2009 in Asheville, on a budget of Atlanta magazine, and others. Wilson from
muscular than feedlot animals who are fed the favorable press over the last 15 years, and
$70,000. Irani served the Indian street food Fullsteam Brewing drove six hours to attend,
corn and soy. White Oak Pastures sells beef that video,” Harris says. SFA has “given me a
he’d grown up on: pakoras and uttapam. and others flew in from as far away as Chicago.
at Whole Foods, Publix, Kroger, and other lot of enlightenment, helped me figure out how
stores, where it costs 50-75% more than the this Southern food system works. It’s given me
The Chai Pani Restaurant Group added a Irani and his colleagues are organizing
cellophane-wrapped styrofoam packaged insight on how to view the world.”
second location in Decatur, Georgia, in 2013 recurring dinners, and Brown in the South
store brands of unknown provenance.
and three years later opened a kebab grill will soon host a website that gathers news,
called Botiwalla at Atlanta’s Ponce City Market. opinion pieces, and features on minority chefs,
White Oak Pastures meat appears on menus
In Asheville, they opened a bar and lounge growers, writers, and other influencers.
across the South, including Bacchanalia, White Oak Pastures Media Coverage called MG Road in 2012, and three years
Restaurant Eugene and Miller Union in
later added a whole-hog barbecue restaurant Irani plans to use Brown in the South as a
Atlanta; and Poole’s Diner in Raleigh, North 50 2018 PROJECTION called Buxton Hall. The staff has swelled to platform to communicate with fellow chefs
Carolina. All are run by fellow SFA members.
47 2017 200. Irani frequently gets invited to cook at and restaurateurs. “People think you have to
29 2016 fundraisers and festivals.
Harris says Edge, Mosier, and others in SFA
helped him think of White Oak Pastures as a 41 2015
64 2014
A film festival brought him to Oxford,
premium producer of humanely raised protein
Mississippi, where restaurateurs Vishwesh
on a holistic and regenerative farm rather than 17 2013
Bhatt and John Currence introduced him to
a livestock operation. 31 2012
Edge. They chatted about life and work and
14 2011 hit it off.
33 2010
10 2009 Irani bought a ticket to the 2017 SFA Fall
20 2008 Symposium, whose theme was El Sur Latino.
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V. It’s Complicated
project this image – the awards, the events, “Before, we thought about roots. Now, we It’s not easy to steward an SFA often books speakers and “They started yelling
the Instagram followers, the food and wine think more about connectivity.” organization like the SFA, whose publishes writing that challenges
festivals,” Irani said. “But I want to tell people members have a passionate sense conventions and invites deep at us ‘Bitch, shut up!
‘Don’t get distracted by all that junk.’” If SFA runs a piece about grandma’s of ownership and authority. One reflection. Get down!’” recalled
cornbread, the article or podcast will likely enduring, albeit diminishing,
Another example of the SFA’s evolving have a deeper and richer story about how criticism is that SFA is too white Ta-Nehisi Coates, the writer one SFA member who
definition of what is Southern: an Indiana-born immigrants are making this staple their own, and too rich. and MacArthur Genius Award is white and female.
chef named Paul Fehribach, who co-owns says Bentley. winner whose work often
a Chicago restaurant called Big Jones that SFA’s work has, from inception, explores systemic racial bias, “It was like, ‘Oh my
specializes in Southern heirloom cooking, focused on working class farmers, began his keynote at the 2014 gosh, we are being put
made Mobile-style gumbo at the 2018 Fall
“Maybe your mother is artisans, and cooks. People of Fall Symposium by saying that
Symposium. Korean and your father is color and immigrants have long he’d like to burn the state of through this walk the
been featured chefs and have Mississippi down. The room slaves went through.’”
It might surprise some SFA members that a
African-American and that been the focus of numerous oral was “squirming and alive in all
chef from the North who has never lived in influenced how she learned histories, films, podcast episodes, these palpable ways” as people Two black women from North
the South was spotlighted as an expert in an and essays in Gravy. grappled with what was said,
Alabama dish.
to make this dish,” Bentley one SFA member recalls.
Carolina were shaken by the
unexpected rawness and immersive
said. “Or maybe your mother The disconnect is with the nature of the experience. The pair
“A lot of people are going to be saying audience for SFA work. Many Two years later, when SFA stayed up late that night at the hotel
‘What the heck?,’” says Melissa Booth Hall,
is a Latina woman who has members are well-known chefs focused a Fall Symposium on and talked with the white woman,
the managing director of SFA. “But there are lived in the South for 20 who own high-profile restaurants, corn, Sean Sherman, a Native whom they didn’t know very well,
seven good reasons to have him.” or professionals who earn sizable American chef descended from about how it made them feel and
years and she grew up on income that allows them to the Oglala Lakota of South what their ancestors must have
Fehribach has established himself as a corn tortillas and she uses bankroll donations to SFA and Dakota, conceived a lunch that experienced. “It was emotional and
knowledgeable chef who has studied these attend numerous food events that excluded colonial influenced impactful,” she said.
Southern staples, and knows a great deal
some of those techniques can be unaffordable for others. ingredients such as sugar and
about how and why these foods came to make her cornbread. You flour. The meal of trout, pea SFA organizers recognize how
to be. He also has insights on how these The fee of $700 per ticket for the shoots, and amaranth cakes upsetting that experience was for
dishes migrated to the North decades ago
have to bring this larger story Fall Symposium, which doesn’t challenged some attendees who some members.
when Southerners looking for steady work of making this Southern include lodging or transportation, are accustomed to more lavish
“As I’ve processed that trip,
uprooted their families and brought their must be high enough to pay fare at SFA events.
cuisine with them.
staple in very different ways all the speakers and chefs who
I’ve come to two very different
conclusions,” says Hall, the SFA’s
and how this, this is the prepare the meals. The same “It was not a pleasurable meal as
managing director. “First, it never
That’s a departure from its early years, when goes for SFA benefit dinners at defined by many in the crowd,”
the SFA would book speakers based on past
changing South.” member restaurants. said Edge. “Pleasure was not the
should have been on the program.
It was organized by collaborators
or present residency in the South, Edge said. whole point. Our mission is to we’d never worked with before
Yet membership to SFA still costs use food and meal experiences and whose intentions we didn’t
just $75 per year, the same as to engage dialogue, not sate fully understand. The second is, it’s
it did a decade ago. That rate culinary cravings.” exactly the sort of thing that SFA
reflects the democratic intent of should always do. It pushed people
the organization, and includes During a 2013 Summer out of their comfort zone and forced
a subscription to the Gravy Symposium in Richmond, them into an experience they never
publication, which must also Virginia, SFA hosted a slave walk would have chosen.”
pay the writers and artists who staged by local interpreters.
contribute to each edition. Attendees climbed aboard The white woman says she is glad
buses after dinner and were that she experienced the slave
Episodes of the professionally driven to the banks of the James walk. It gave her a visceral sense of
produced Gravy podcast are free River. They stood in a misty the trauma that enslaved people
and available to anyone, as are rain, swatting at mosquitoes. endured and how those experiences
the documentaries and short Suddenly, guides for the slave still imprint on their descendents.
films that the public can view walk began shouting. The SFA felt like the safest place
anytime on SFA’s website or on to experience something like that,
its channels on video hosting she said. “I still think about that
services such as Vimeo. sometimes. It stayed with me.”16 THRIVE I A W H I T E PA P E R O N T H E I N F L U E N C E O F T H E S O U T H E R N F O O D W AY S A L L I A N C E THRIVE I A W H I T E PA P E R O N T H E I N F L U E N C E O F T H E S O U T H E R N F O O D W AY S A L L I A N C E 17
VI. Academic Cachet VII. The Tonight Show
The academic grounding and professional
production quality of SFA’s body of work is one
Ashanté Reese, a professor of food studies,
anthropology, and sociology at Spelman
Starring Johnny Carson
of the main attractions for writers, historians, College in Atlanta who has written for SFA,
documentarians, journalists, professors, and was awarded a Smith Symposium Fellowship Central to SFA’s steadily rising influence and In 2010, he won the M.F.K. Fisher
other influencers. in 2017. national presence is the leadership of John T. Distinguished Writing Award. Edge wrote a
Edge, who has been director since inception. food history of the modern South called The
Nancie McDermott, an SFA contributor and Reese was inspired to see such a diverse Potlikker Papers, which was published in 2017
author from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, recalls group of academics, chefs, restaurateurs, and A quick text or email from Edge and even the and explores race, class, and the changing
a moving talk by scholar and culinary historian writers at a gathering that was convivial yet busiest chefs, restaurateurs, photographers, South through food. The book was awarded
Dr. Jessica B. Harris of Queens College/ also tackled hard subjects like inequality in an farmers, or other professionals will carve a prize by the Mississippi Institute of Arts and
CUNY about pralinières, the black women academically grounded way. out time to speak with someone, make an Letters.
who gained financial independence by selling introduction, agree to cook at an event or help
pralines on the streets of the French Quarter in “It was so different than an academic in whatever way they are needed. Like many things Edge touches, there is a
New Orleans in the mid-19th century. conference.” Reese said. “Sometimes it’s really robust symbiosis between his work for SFA
hard to get focused on uncomfortable topics. Raised in Clinton, Georgia, about an hour and his extracurriculars. For a dozen years
It’s my sweet spot.” and a half southeast of Atlanta, he earned a Edge served on the James Beard restaurant
“They are always bringing master’s degree in Southern Studies at the awards committee in a personal capacity
in these voices and thinkers Without the fellowship, the symposium’s $700 University of Mississippi in the late 1990s. beginning when he was a contributing editor
fee probably would have been unattainable While there, he organized a 1998 symposium at Gourmet magazine. This service lies outside
and writers I would have for her. on Southern foodways and bonded with SFA work, though clearly each role benefits
never heard from otherwise,” Egerton over a shared vision for what would the other. 227
“The symposium is really expensive. I become SFA.
said McDermott. would not ever go if I hadn’t been fortunate
enough to be selected as a Smith fellow,” Edge, who also holds a M.F.A. in Creative
SFA isn’t bound by student recruiting drives, Nonfiction from Goucher College, has
said Reese, who is working on a book about
construction capital campaigns, and tricky contributed to influential publications
neighborhoods, race, and food inequalities in
internal politics of academia, says Nystrom of
Washington, D.C. including The New York Times, Garden & Gun,
240
Loyola. and Oxford American.
Reese appreciates the fellowship. But that
“SFA is a lot more nimble and that gives them He’s a thought leader and foremost voice on all
freedom to grow,” Nystrom said. “They have
effort alone will not drive a “systematic 196
things related to Southern food, which is why
the academic bent, yet when people wake
structural change in the organization” that 189
up on a Tuesday and want to do something
would open it up to more people, she said. he’s often called for commentary by journalists 182
creative and new, they can.”
on TV, radio and influential newspapers 171
Broad reach and wide access is important to including The New York Times, The Washington
156
In 2014, SFA introduced a Smith Symposium
the SFA, which is one reason the organization Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago 149
hasn’t raised the $75 membership fee in a Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.
Fellows program that provides complimentary
Fall Symposium passes and travel stipends to
decade and makes much of the professionally 128
produced content available for free on its
valued contributors such as academics and
writers whose work promises a positive impact
website. 108
on the region and its foodways. Pam and
100
90
Brook Smith underwrote the fellowship with a
$250,000 gift.
Southern Foodways
Alliance Media Coverage
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“If there are ways in which my work outside of SFA benefits the SFA, that’s great,” Edge said. VIII. Where To?
Edge, who is 55, says he plans to do more teaching and writing over the next five years and The SFA has a strategic vision and roadmap for growth through 2025.
making time for that will mean stepping back from day-to-day SFA leadership at some point.
“There’s a lot of cult of personality. It’s like ‘The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,’ or ‘The Daily It boils down to this: Do
more of what we already do well, but on a
Show with Jon Stewart,’” said Bentley, the SFA contributor and journalist. “It’s going to be hard. grander scale while reaching more people.
They’ve got to bring in other people, start to groom.”
To ready itself for a third decade, the SFA developed a new logo and new messaging, which
A succession plan is coming into focus. There is a campaign underway to raise $2.7 million to more directly reflects the current mission and vision. In 2018, SFA also retooled and re-
endow the director position, which will be named for Edge when he retires or assumes a new launched each and every one of its core products.
position. About $2.2 million has already been committed.
To rethink Gravy print and podcast, SFA convened two different three-day sessions with
Other SFA leaders such as managing editor Sara Camp Milam and project coordinator Afton subject matter experts including Dorothy Kalins (Saveur), Chris Ying (Lucky Peach), Eve Troeh
Thomas have taken on more visible roles and expanded responsibilities in recent years. (Marketplace), and Wendy Dorr (Caliphate, The New York Times). SFA also rebuilt its website
from the ground up and won a grant to rethink its film and audio archive.
They and others are increasingly being put forward to speak at events while Edge purposefully
takes more of a backseat when he’s able. Members often mention these other emerging leaders As the budget grows, SFA is hiring staff to elevate its digital strategy and do more targeted
when talking about the future of SFA. marketing. The organization recently hired a dedicated fundraiser who actively seeks gifts
from members, and donations in the $25,000 to $100,000 range are becoming more frequent.
“Success for us will be making rockstars out of our next generation of colleagues, showcasing There will be more prominent stewardship of donors and supporters.
them, making them people you want at your event or showing up in your backyard,” Edge said.
Documentary short films and oral histories will always be central to SFA’s mission, and that
work is launching the careers of a new generation of documentarians and scholars.
In 2015 SFA hired Ava Lowrey as the Pihakis Foodways Documentary Filmmaker to direct
and produce foodways films and teach students. She has made dozens of documentaries
on subjects as varied as the importance of pinto beans in Southern cooking; a one-stop
grocery store and taqueria in rural Siler City, North Carolina; and Dolester Miles, the veteran
pastry chef at Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham, Alabama, known for elevating Southern
classics such as coconut pecan cake with crème anglaise.
SFA will likely develop a popular press book imprint of its own. They’ve also discussed a seed
fund or venture capital fund that could help sustain and grow culturally rich but financially
poor entities.
As SFA enters its third decade, leaders have a singular vision of driving further progress in
the South and beyond with their academically grounded influence on culture, food, and
discourse.
Each new podcast episode, short film, Gravy article, published book, workshop, writers
retreat, speaker opportunity, chef invitation, and subsequent exposure in other media further
elevates the lives and businesses of people who are positively changing the South.
“SFA has given us a platform to tell our stories, and that storytelling is just as important as
what’s on the plate in front of us,” said Gomez, SFA member and collaborator since 2012.You can also read
