The Southern Fork - Southern Fork Sustenance: A Conversation with Chef Scott Peacock (Marion, AL)

Southern Fork Sustenance: A Conversation with Chef Scott Peacock (Marion, AL)

09/15/23 • 39 min

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Alabama native Scott Peacock is a James Beard Award-winning chef and one of the foremost authorities on American Southern cuisine. He might be best known for his work at Watershed restaurant in Decatur, Georgia, and his partnership with culinary icon Edna Lewis, but his recipes and writing have appeared in numerous publications as well, including The New York Times, Better Homes & Gardens, Gourmet, Food & Wine, and Bon Appetit. Although I was very aware of his reputation, it was through one of those recipes that I first personally encountered Scott, since I believe recipes well-written by one and well-executed by another become a sort of strange collaborative alchemy. Soon we connected further over the familiarities of food, common friends, and special Southern locales, and one such place for Scott is Marion, Alabama—the heart of Alabama’s Black Belt region — where he has opened the historic kitchens of Reverie mansion for the Black Belt Biscuit Experience. These intimate, small-group workshops on the fine art of traditional Southern biscuit-making are built on his celebrated biscuits that have been on the covers of Gourmet and Food & Wine, and which Food & Wine named one of their 40 best recipes ever published, but the class is as much meditation as it is method. I could think of no better baking and conversation partner to end this year’s Southern Fork Summer Tour, and here he invites us deep beyond ingredients and techniques into the art of presence, the commitment to a creative path, and the power of passionate attention to detail.

Previous Episode

Scallop Diving with Captain Katie Jo Davis: KD Outdoors Fishing Charters (Crystal River, FL)

Despite the name, I was still so unprepared for how very clear much of the water is in the Crystal River region of Florida. From snaking like a teal ribbon around trees and under bridges, to reflecting clouds like a salty mirror, on the day I went out on it, our boat sped closer on its glassy surface to a horizon already dotted with other anchored boats. Every year, fishing folks make the pilgrimage to this area of Florida to dive for bay scallops, and for those who grow up in the region, scalloping season is a cultural tradition, and usually one that begins as soon as a child can swim. Katie Jo Davis, owner of KD Outdoors Fishing Charters, remembers taking naps in the fish box on a boat before she could even walk. She’s been fishing and scalloping these waters her whole life, and after 6 years in the U.S. Army, worked as a fishing guide in Canada before making her way back to her home waters. Bay scallops are the more petite cousins of sea scallops, the common “scallops” that show up on restaurant menus, but commercial harvest of bay scallops is prohibited in Florida, so one of the easiest ways to taste this very local delicacy is to catch them yourself. Captain Katie Jo knows just where to find them.

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BBQ Inspirations for the Fall Equinox from Chris Lilly, Tuffy Stone, & Hector Garate (The American South)

Although The Southern Fork Summer Tour is over, we still have a few weeks together, and the weather has started to turn in much of the South. I don’t know about you, but soon after I feel that first cool breeze, I can’t wait to have a plate of barbecue. Maybe it’s because in my North Carolina childhood, barbecue “stands” as it were, popped up at church parking lots and auxiliary halls each Autumn, using good food to raise money for good causes, but no matter where I am this time of year, I’m thinking about the combo of time, smoke, and the skill of a pitmaster to create this iconic Southern food. The South is full of barbecue styles, each with throughlines of technique but different nuances, and unlike a barbecue purist, I love them all. So in honor of the Fall Equinox, today we dive into the archives for some barbecue inspiration from three who know their way around hot coals: Chris Lilly of Big Bob Gibson in Decatur, AL, Tuffy Stone, the Professor of Barbecue, out of Henrico, VA, and Hector Garate of Palmira BBQ in Charleston, SC.

Full episodes: Chris Lilly: Big Bob Gibson (Decatur, AL)

Tuffy Stone: Professor of Barbecue (Henrico, VA)

Hector Garate: Palmira BBQ (Charleston, SC)