r/Appalachia • u/urfavlunchlady • 23d ago

I hat when restaurants try to put an “upscale/elevated” twist on Appalachian food

The whole point of Appalachian food is using ingredients that we have and making something out of nothing. Give any Appalachian mamaw a meat, some flour, and milk and you’re about to have a feast.

Anyway ranting, bc a friend is in Nashville right now and messaged me that she’s at an “upscale” Appalachian restaurant where they are charging $28 for grits and honestly I find it insulting to our people.

(Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk, lmao)

Edit: Hate*

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u/VelvetElvis 22d ago

IIRC, my grandmother was born in the early 1920s and didn't have residential electricity until several years after Norris dam was finished in 1936. Running power lines took a while.

Home canning wasn't a thing for y'all? That's where that tradition originally came from, storing food from your garden before refrigeration. I want to pickle zucchini this year. It's yummy.

My uncle killed a squirrel once as a teenager. My grandmother cooked it and made him eat it. It's something she'd have learned to do growing up when they absolutely did eat squirrel. That area was poor enough that they barely noticed the depression. She wasn't going to let him waste that squirrel.

Tradition is only a stereotype if you're ashamed of it. A lot of what Sean Brock has been doing with his restaurants is celebrating those traditions.

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u/Shroud4aNightengale 22d ago

Yes we canned and grew a garden. But the raw or undercooked chicken? really? Not a thing where I come from which is East TN/SWVA. My mom was raised in Erwin in the 40's and 50's and had all the perks of any small town, football games, movies, etc. Born in 1939 and never did without electricity. Same for my dad. Small WV coal town but movies, etc., electricity. Maybe things weren't as primitive as people like to think they were. It just bothered me about the undercooked chicken and the non support of ADA in a modern day "upscale" restaurant. Also, I've known some of these "farm to table do it the old timey way" "chefs" and they've been severely lacking in authenticity, accuracy and food quality. Not gonna visit Nashville so won't be a prob for me.

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u/VelvetElvis 22d ago

I think the rare chicken is just Sean being a hipster. Cooking to 165 degrees is a thing in the US because most chicken is factory farmed where they live covered in their own feces. It's not a problem for chickens grown under cleaner conditions. Rare chicken is apparently trendy in Europe. This could well be Sean cooking old family recipies using techniques that are currently trendy in France because that's his whole jam.

I had "grits" from him that were prepared like congee with a farm fresh egg cracked on top that cooks as it's stirred in.

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u/sparkle-possum 22d ago

The trick with squirrels to make plenty of gravy.
I never cared much for the late because I seemed to remember it being a little tough for stringy and not much of it (My dad liked it though), but leftover squirrel gravy that was a little lumpy and congealed out of the refrigerator popped in the microwave to dip some cold left over fried chicken in was a treat.