Southern Cooking, High and Low: A Short History of the Cuisine of the South

Speaker: John Beck, Historian and Author, Southern Culture: An Introduction

Traditional southern cuisine is, at its core, primarily a blending of traditions and ingredients from three groups: American Indians, immigrants from Europe, and enslaved peoples from West and central Africa. Today, these traditions are being challenged by processed, prepackaged foods and chain restaurants—but they are also being taken in new directions, led by professionally trained chefs intent on exploring the cuisine’s possibilities.

Made possible by funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.