We chatted with Sean Brock, author of Heritage, about his new book, the recipes, his inspiration, and his thoughts on proper practices in the world of food. Find out a little more about him in this extended cut of our interview that appears in our November issue, and enter to win your own autographed copy of Heritage in our cookbook giveaway!
The New Growth of the Old Ways
Among his numerous awards and accolades, Chef Sean Brock can brag (though he doesn’t) of his executive chef position at the noted Charleston restaurant, McCrady’s, the Charleston and Nashville locations of his Southern food Mecca, Husk, and his 2010 James Beard Award for Best Chef Southeast. Brock’s career has been full of brilliance, back-lit by quality farmers and producers that have helped him shine. In his first cookbook, Heritage, Brock shines a little light back on them. With excerpts on the friends that have helped him get cozy with the Lowcountry and Southern cuisines he loves, Heritage makes an appeal for what the celebrated chef has been promoting for years—folks getting back in touch with the food of their land. Along with personal stories of influence and inspiration and overviews of nearly-lost Southern food history, the beautifully presented recipes range from simple to complex, making them accessible to cooks of all skill levels. Heritage is a journey that will inspire you to understand your own region’s terroir, and the people and practices behind the food that fills your plate.
When did your interest in Lowcountry cooking start?
When I went to culinary school in Charleston in 1997, I devoted myself to trying to understand the cuisine on both the high-brow and low-brow levels. I worked at a number of restaurants there for a few years—sometimes working at three in a day. I worked at a soul food place and fell in love with it, and then worked at the Peninsula Grill and saw the high-end part of the cuisine.
Did your grandmother’s kitchen garden play a role in your becoming a chef?
My experience growing up in the Appalachian Mountains was very common; it was the way everyone there lived. You knew where all your food came from. As a kid, I saw food from seed all the way through to maturity. I watched plants grow, took care of them, weeded and harvested them, cleaned and manicured them, and finally cooked them. It became a part of me. Playing in the garden, chopping vegetables, and cooking in the kitchen with my mother and grandmother became all I wanted to do.
Is it important for people to understand where their food comes from?
I think people get hung up on the term “local,” when really the most important thing we need to think about is that the food is from a farm that has the correct agricultural practices—that they’re taking care of the soil the right way. This will lead to nutritious and delicious food. If you buy a local tomato that’s been sprayed with a million chemicals, you’re not doing anybody any good. The most important thing is to support the very few farmers who are out there doing the right thing.
How has this helped you connect with farmers and producers in your area?
The close friendships I’ve made with producers I admire and respect makes a difference. When you get to know people on a personal level, you get to know their practices, and you can better decide whether or not you want to consume their product. Also, once you really get to know somebody and see how much work goes into what they do, you handle their products with more care.
You also say the foods grown in a region are part of that area’s history. Tell us more about that.
There are foods that thrive in a region because of the geography and weather. We’re born into these areas, and this becomes our reference point for good food and comfort. These flavors and memories become a part of who we are. It’s important to embrace each region’s particular terroir and flavor; it represents family, appreciation, memory, and that deliciousness that makes everything right.
Give us an example of Charleston’s food terroir.
The beauty of Charleston is its incredible history, including its agricultural history. Here, everything is centered around the rice kitchen—rice is the backbone—but it’s so much more than that. Varieties of plants were put in place in a specific rotation to nourish the soil so that the rice would grow properly. These plants included things like benne, okra, farro, corn, sorghum, cowpeas, and more. All of these things were first for agricultural use, but they ended up on the table as well. That’s how I define a cuisine: the plants that belong and thrive in a particular area along with the cultural influences of the people who have cooked and lived and farmed there.
You decided to use only Southern products at Husk. Was this difficult?
I think for true Southern flavor, ingredients need to be grown in Southern soil by Southern people. That became our idea for Husk. It turned out to be a tremendous amount of work—lots of phone calls, farm visits, and friendships, and a great deal of organizing. But it also pushed us. We started making our own versions of convenience products that we could usually just grab off the shelf. We started grinding our own wheat, making our own salt, and making our own vinegar. This discipline changed my life as a cook and taught me more than I could have ever imagined at a more accelerated rate than I ever thought was possible. I believe that will be an eternal form of education for me—an eternal journey of trying to understand everything about food.
Has it gotten easier to find these products in the South?
It has gotten a little easier over time. But it takes a lot of people with the same attitude and the same desires and goals and passions to make a change. And I’m not just talking about chefs. I’m talking about everyone who spends money on food, period.
How can we work toward this goal?
Buy the best you can afford. Think about the food you’re consuming, and whether it is coming from the right sources. When you buy things from different producers, you are voting for their practices. In one ballot box you have producers using correct agricultural practices, who take care of the dirt, the plants, and the animals. In the other ballot box, you have people who only look at the present day and who treat animals and plants and dirt with disrespect. Every time you pay for something it goes into one of those two boxes, and you say, “Thank you for what you’re doing; please keep doing it.”
How do you try to elevate Southern food from misconceptions people may have?
Initially, Southern food was one of the purest, cleanest, and healthiest cuisines. However, after the Great Depression and World War II, the agricultural practices, the cooking, and the products people used all changed. We got away from what we knew in favor of efficiency and convenience. This bred out a lot of flavor. In order to make up for that lost flavor, people started to use a lot more dairy and started to fry more. I think that we’re getting back to a point of bringing the flavor back into the food, where we don’t have to add all this fat and fry everything. We’re realizing it’s beautiful and pure in its raw state.
Have you found anything to be true of all Southern cooking?
What I’ve found to be a common thread throughout the South is the ability for cooks to take whatever ingredient they have and cook it in a way that provides comfort. To me, Southern food makes you feel a certain way. Southern cooks do this on a daily basis. They can take a humble pot of dried lima beans and make it one of the most luxurious, delicious, and nurturing things you could ever consume.
Tell us about stocking your pantry.
I remember spending time in my grandmother’s basement and seeing all the food that was stored there: vinegars, pickled vegetables, mason jars just full of preserved food—it was a cook’s arsenal! That’s where all the flavors hid. I think that taking the time to build a home pantry is one of the smartest things you can do as a cook. If you stock your pantry with the best, then your cooking becomes so much easier. You can throw amazing meals together in no time.
Who inspired your pursuits as an heirloom seed saver and sharer?
My grandmother started the work, though I didn’t realize it until later. The food I was working with in the restaurants was tasteless. The vegetables, the lettuces, the beans, the corn—none of them tasted like what I remembered eating growing up. I talked to my grandmother about it, and she showed me the seeds she used, and explained the differences. I realized that this is where delicious food comes from. Then I met John Coykendall, the Master Seedsman and Gardener at Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee, and Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills, and they confirmed that my grandmother’s word was bond.
Do you have a favorite recipe in the cookbook?
The recipe that makes me the happiest on the simplest level is the Cracklin’ Cornbread. When we opened Husk, I knew I had to get the cornbread right. I gathered the recipes of the most memorable bites of cornbread I’d had, and I combined them all into what I thought was the ultimate recipe; one that really showed the flavor of the corn without covering it up with flour and sugar, and also provided some soul from smoke. For me, cornbread is bound cornmeal with buttermilk and egg, and that’s it. I want to taste the buttermilk; I want to taste the egg; and I want to taste the cornmeal.
Do you have any advice for the aspiring chef/home cook trying your recipes?
Don’t be afraid; document every mistake in a notebook; and learn from it. That’s the stance that I have always taken as a cook. While it’s not fun to mess things up and make mistakes, it’s essential to truly understanding how cooking works. I’ve made a ton of mistakes. But you can’t just make them and become discouraged. You have to make them, keep a log, learn, research, think, and go at it again.
What do you hope will come from this cookbook?
This cookbook was originally supposed to be about Lowcountry cuisine, but it ended up being very personal. If you read the book from front to back, you’ll see a journey. You’ll see lessons learned along the way, what inspired me, what motivates me. And in the end, you’ll see what has brought me true happiness: embracing my family’s food and the heritage of my region and of the places that I enjoy the most. That experience can happen for anyone, no matter where they are. It’s about understanding what makes you happy.
Don’t forget to enter to win an autographed copy of Heritage!
Photos reprinted, with permission, from Heritage by Sean Brock, (Artisan Books, 2014)
Photography courtesy of Peter Frank Edwards
