Soul Kitchen

FROM OUR CHEF:

American Food, what is it exactly?

When we use this phrase most minds conjure up images of people eating on the fly, out of fast food wrappers, burgers laden with oily meats, slathered in cheese. But American food is not that at all.

In our house, a Jewish home with a British mother, we enjoyed Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding as much as we did schmaltz on Matzo with a green pickled tomato. My neighbors had raviolis and things I couldn’t pronounce. I also remember learning my friend Renee’ had steak tartar for her dinner with her French Ma Maw and our friends around the corner taught me the delights of Baklava.

America is made up of culture from every corner of the Earth. Our food is influenced by them all. People reached America’s shores with recipes from the old country that they were not able to achieve with what the local markets had to offer so they adapted and modified and our cuisine evolved.

In the South, that later became my home after having been raised in New York, food was skillfully transformed from humble ingredients to sumptuously satisfying meals where people sat down with one another and ate with delight. Nothing in the South went to waste and people put thought and care into each meal.

I think the city of New Orleans had the most influence on how I started to perceive food. It was an art in New Orleans, an art which nourished the soul. Everyone enjoys talking, reading, writing, buying and eating food. Go to a Church social, a bar, a beauty Salon, a barber shop or market and you will hear people actively engaged in conversation about food. They talk about how it was prepared and who it was enjoyed with. No, not burgers from greasy wrappers but real food, food prepared by someone who loves them, who puts heart and soul into each dish because it is over food that covenant is made and memories are formed. That to me is American Food, a culmination of flavors from around the world that are created with love and skill to nourish the body and soul.

Chef Barbara