Episode 1: Heading South

AUTHOR: Jon Cianfrani, Producer, The Mind of a Chef
EPISODE: SOUTHERNERS
CHEF: SEAN BROCK

Before working with Sean Brock on The Mind of a Chef, all of my assumptions about Southern cuisine revolved around two cooking techniques: deep-fried and BBQ.

I never gave much consideration to the ingredients or regional cultures that comprise the vast area seated below the Mason-Dixon line. But after seeing Sean’s chef friends from Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee cook their dishes, I realize my assumptions were way off and that my ignorance has denied me a whole world of delicious food.

For this episode, we invited a handful of Southern chefs to cook with Sean Brock at his recently opened restaurant, Husk Nashville. Each chef presented an emblematic dish to the region they are from. John Currence from Mississippi made tamales, Steven Satterfield from Georgia made a field pea salad, and the Lee brothers from South Carolina made deviled crabs.

What’s fascinating about the South is that people love to tell stories, and when the stories come from a chef, you get a history lesson through the lens of food. For example, the tamales that John Currence made were the lunch of migrant field workers who came in after slavery was abolished. The cornhusk outer layer was protection, and the masa wouldn’t go bad in the heat, so the workers could keep their lunch in their pockets while they worked.

Working on this episode, I found that not only is there a culinary diversity in the South, but also that the history of America is in large part the history of food. And who better to tell the story then a Southern chef?

This is Fish Net Seafood, off Savannah Highway in John’s Island, SC. It may look like a derelict gas station, but don’t be frightened, because inside are some of the freshest and most delicious fried crabs you’ll ever eat.

There’s no better way to prove the freshness of your seafood than to have it delivered alive. Here are two crates of live blue crabs dropped off at Fish Net Seafood.

This is us filming the meal at Fish Net. There aren’t tables, typically, just a few counters in the back; but they let us set this up so we could get all that excellent blue background behind Sean and the Lee Brothers in our shot.

Fried crabs with a side of hush puppies (the real ones, not the knockoffs we usually get up North). I could write about how awesome it is to chow down on these, but I think the picture tells the story better than I ever could. And yes, they taste even better than they look.

These are Deviled Crabs — the Lee Brothers remove the meat from a crab, toss it with bread crumbs, jalapeño, and a hard boiled egg, and then stuff it back into the top of the shell before baking it. This is a classic Southern dish.

Hot Chicken at Princes in Nashville, TN is an experience I will never forget. It was the first day of filming, and after Sean ate an “Extra Hot” for camera, I decided to try one. It didn’t start out so bad, but 5 minutes in and I had entered a realm of heat reserved only for the wicked. It took 48 hours for my body and mind to return to normal.

These are John Currence’s tamales from Mississippi, made with masa, smoked mushrooms, and whipped sour cream. What is great about a tamale is that you can add whatever you desire as the filling. The masa is the base ingredient.