PrintI Wish I Was Kim Severson's +1
The New York Times food section was full of interesting, fun and thought-provoking stuff this morning, but for me the most mouthwatering (and poignant) story was on page 3. There Kim Severson reported on the Edna Lewis memorial dinner, held this past Sunday in Atlanta. Edna Lewis was, as Kim described her, "an icon of Southern cooking."
Although she was born in Virginia and lived out her life in Atlanta, New Yorkers were graced by her presence and cooking skill for many years, first at Cafe Nicholson and then at Gage and Tollner. I recall eating her food many times, first at Gage and Tollner and later at the City Meals on Wheels benefits at the skating rink at Rockefeller Center.
I remember one hot June evening at one of those benefits biting into a piece of her fried chicken and thinking I had never tasted anything that good in my life, and then thinking the same thing after sampling one of her incomparable flaky, moist biscuits.
Her biscuits and the fried chicken were of course on the menu that Scott Peacock, a gifted Southern chef who had taken care of Lewis in the last years of her life, prepared. Although you could just read the menu in the paper this morning or get it on-line I thought it might make me feel better about missing the dinner (not that I was invited) if I at least typed it out here:
*Cheese Straws
*Benne Seed Wafers with Shrimp Paste
*Pimento Cheese and Celery
*Buttermilk Biscuits Stuffed With Smithfield Ham, Sweet Butter
*Southern Pan-Fried Chicken
*Deviled Eggs
*Asparagus Dressed with Cucumber and Spring Herbs
*Heirloom Tomato and Field Pea Salad with Garlic Mayonnaise
*Sunday Night Cake
*Miss Lewis's Coconut Layer Cake
*Cat's Tongue Cookies
*Fresh Strawberries
*Blackberry Cobbler With Fresh Churned Vanilla Ice Cream
*Old-Fashioned Tea Cakes
*Homemade Lemonade, Iced Tea
Is it just me, or does this sound like it was one of the greatest meals ever?
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2 Comments:
I am dying to know what Sunday Night Cake is!!!
YumNYC at 4:30PM on 05/31/06
Hi Ed, I am not much of a blogger - but am delighted to find and read your site and will try to participate in this great democratic exchange. Yes - the memorial meal for Edna Lewis does sound like the best ever. Especially now that we are swinging into summer. Do you think the recipes are printed somewhere? Every time I read it - asparagus with cucumber and herb dressing- blackberry cobbler and churned ice cream- I start to melt. Then I go make some lemonade and fresh mint tea, and try to keep going as best as a Yankee can.
thanks for doing this - you are on my bookmarks bar!
anne at 7:55PM on 06/04/06