Notes from a Food Diva: Southern Hospitality

I was off to Atlanta on Amtrak for the annual conference of Les Dames d’ Escoffier. Southerners are well known for their hospitality and their style should prove helpful in planning your holiday fetes - just three weeks till Christmas.

If anything stands out from the food in Atlanta and Savannah, my post conference jaunt, it’s shrimp and grits. Southerners love them and serve them -often. The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, where the conference was held, hosted the final Grande Dame dinner at their downtown Ritz Carlton venue.

The first course, shrimp and grits, arrived in its most elegant form - as a parfait: warm grits on the bottom with three handsome shrimp, tails included, back-to-back center top and bathed in a delicious hot sauce.

At the pre-board of directors dinner, the curly end of an oversized leaf of romaine was layered with slivered celery, carrot, and scallion that was rolled up and banded with a thin slice of zucchini. It was an innovative salad course with a molded, puck-sized, gelatin cheese salad alongside. The combination was delightful and I sensed that molded gelatin salad is making a comeback as an addition to, rather than the salad itself, as in days of yore.

If you’re looking for something spectacular for New Year’s Eve, how about a dine-around to one of the lovely Atlanta homes? They're all big and they're all charming. In the living room of collector and tastemaker Eileen Duboses' home, a silver-rimmed, shallow glass dish filled with crushed ice was waiting for us. Varied oysters of every size and shape were arranged on top with two complimentary sauces. It was spectacular and throughout the evening, from an ice chest, the server opened more oysters to replenish the dish. Incidentally, Holly Chutte, chef at the Georgia Governor’s Mansion, supervised the buffet repast displayed in the dining room. She hails from Rockville Center, L.I.

We lunched at Canoe, a chef-owned restaurant on the banks of the Chattahoochee River. It was an impressive operation that serves up to 350 per day between the outdoor riverside settings, two huge, silk lined tents for weddings and varied indoor seating. It was billed as a Georgia wine luncheon, but the way they handled a pre-wine tasting made me eager to give a sit-down holiday dinner and do thusly, rather than the usual hors d'oeuvres and drinks in the living room.

We sat down to a table with three tasting-sized servings of wines already poured before us. To the left of each seat was a long slender plate. On it were three artisan cheeses, a leaf of lettuce and a dab of jelly. There was also a basket of flatbread. The tasting began with notes on the Georgia wines and artisan cheese (Camembert-styled cow’s milk, Chevre, French style Tomme). It was a festive way to handle pre dinner drinks.

Atlanta favors the South’s staple cuisine, barbecue, in a big way. One evening, we dressed as cowgirls and bussed to a renovated warehouse venue that was bedecked with a picket fence and cornstalks. There, six of Atlanta’s top barbecue masters served their special barbecue, some with grits and all with a coleslaw variation. Bourbon, the signature drink of the South, was served straight up and, as a Rose’rita, local brews filled our glasses as blue grass melodies kept our feet tapping.

The optional Sunday event was the eleventh annual “A Day in the Country,” Les Dames’s Atlanta chapter’s annual fundraiser, which drew 1,600 attendees. Chefs from Atlanta’s top restaurants and caterers paired with the area’s best farms to offer wine and beer tastings as well as live music at Serenebe, a 900-acre environmentally responsible live/work community. The event included a Chinese-style raffle that featured dozens of creations from Atlanta’s top pastry chefs and a silent auction.

My post convention stop, after a bus trip to Savannah, was at a charming bed and breakfast.

Breakfast was served at 8:30 a.m. each morning in the chocolate hued wallpapered dining room on a cloth covered dining table. There were chafing dishes of scrambled eggs with a sprinkling of cheese, crisp bacon (sometimes sausage, too), potatoes and grits. Biscuits? Of course!

Each day, there would be a special baked dish. I loved the thick slices of baguette in a baking dish with syrup of brown sugar, butter and spice, which was refrigerated overnight and then baked to puffy brown goodness. Halved slices of unpeeled orange from the tree in the garden were there for nibbling during the conversation that always followed.

Savannah is my kind of town. There are 20 block-sized green squares downtown with lovely trees, winding paths, wrought iron fountains and benches. The strip of greenery between the sidewalk and street is about a foot larger than here in Douglaston and planted with shrubs and a blossom or two, a look that I love.

My enchanted place was lunch on an iron-wrapped balcony looking out over one of the squares at the Holly Days Bazaar and a silent auction at St. John’s Church on West Macon Street.

For luncheon, I had the classic pimento cheese sandwich with grated cheddar and slivered pimento added. And because I felt I wanted more Southern exposure, I also ordered the shrimp salad, which was a revelation to a Yankee. They finely chopped the shrimp and blended it with mayonnaise. Dessert was coconut layer cake, but innovatively served. We were invited to choose from an impressive collection of homemade cakes and a bowl of English trifle and pour our own coffee.

The bazaar itself was mostly nursery items, including a striking canary yellow plant, which will double in size in one year. There was also an incredibly long row of tables displaying jars of jam and relishes. The canning committee worked all summer long at the church kitchen, making the relishes and jams to sell at the sale.

Naturally, I took the gate and garden tour. I relished each and every one of Savannah’s marvelous iron gates, stairs and balconies and I delighted in the candelabras on porches and balconies, which were ready to be lit at the cocktail hour.

Afterwards, at the guide’s suggestion, I went to a charming tearoom, Gryphon, which was formerly a pharmacy that had book-lined shelves once used for holding pharmaceuticals. Luncheon was served at tables set in the center, but easy chairs and sofas circled it.  There, I had a cup of afternoon tea and resisted dessert as I delighted in the décor from Tiffany & Co. 

Douglastonian Kay McDermott, who has a place on St. Simon, an island close to Savannah, cued me in on some special Savannah dining spots. First, there’s Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House, which serves luncheon from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The line often goes around the block.

It has communal seating at roundtables for eight. When you walk through the door and are escorted to your table, 21 dishes await your arrival. It’s a sampling of popular Southern cuisine: greens, sliced cucumbers in vinegar, dressing (not stuffing, birds are never stuffed down South) and gravy. A platter of fried chicken is passed. And, for dessert, choose from peach cobbler and banana pudding. The beverages include Southern sweet tea or lemonade, no matter where you go.

I felt duty-bound to go to Lady and Sons, Paula Dean's eatery (She also co-owns a restaurant with her uncle on Tybee Island, where she lives.) The décor is ultra simple and, predictably, the classic Southern luncheon buffet is served. But hoecakes await you on the bread plate.

From the a la carte menu, I chose the asparagus sandwich. The tips of the asparagus were removed and the center section was cooked, chilled and sandwiched between slices of thin, very dark pumpernickel bread. It was excellent. You can have one of Paula Dean's desserts, a small dish of banana pudding or Ooey Gooey, a calorific Paula creation using a mix.

The Riverwalk is also one of Savannah’s treasures. There, at a seafood restaurant, I relished the Low Country Shrimp: boil shrimp, small, skins on, boiled potatoes and an ear of corn, all of which are arranged on a platter with a side of cole slaw.

And I went to Leopold’s, which is rated number five in the world. I sampled pumpkin ice cream with walnuts, caramel syrup and nutmeg. The Bathtub for Two was awesome.

I discovered that Atlanta’s bastion of haute cuisine, Elizabeth’s, is only open for dinner. So, I sat on the front porch of the huge, locked sandstone building, and then walked to a small café on 37th and Albercore. After sipping white vermouth with a touch of orange wine, I sampled the Benny, which is the Southern version of Eggs Benedict: Grits, topped with poached eggs, Hollandaise, crisp bacon and sliced, toasted focaccia. Most satisfying.

Chef Kevin Gillespie, one of the Les Dames conference’s luncheon speakers, talked about the future of Southern cuisine and gave a strong case for it emerging as a force on the culinary scene.

Here are gleanings from menus of restaurants I passed by in Atlanta and Savannah:

Braised beef sandwich, J’s bacon and beets, fried green tomato BLT, organic mushroom cheesecake, smoked chicken croquets, country ham and chicken liver, fried green tomato Benedict.

Fresh crab, avocado mousse, ratatouille, smoked gouda on French bread, fillet au poivre with arugala, goat cheese, sweet potato cake, grilled pimento cheese, onion confit, applewood smoked bacon on jalapeno cornbread.

African squash soup with lime cream, pumpkin seeds, ruby red and golden beet salad with candied walnuts and goat cheese, American red snapper with roasted hummus, local collards, giant Peruvian white beans, Seckel pear tart with rum ice cream.

Wild Georgia shrimp, applewood smoked bacon, chopped salad of green beans, Romaine, chickpeas, egg, onion, crispy bacon, blue cheese, eggs Benedict with grilled focaccia, Prosciutto, lemon Hollandaise sauce.

Southern Cobb salad of Romaine, deviled eggs, candied bacon, grilled chicken breast, sundried tomatoes, blue cheese, ranch dressing, braised beef on pretzel roll with greyer cheese, onion, mustard, mixed greens, spiced pecans, pear, Parmesan and lemon vinaigrette, as well as grilled pork chops with white bean puree, braised red cabbage, candied mustard and sweet potato pecan pie.

Steamed mussels, smoked bacon, white wine cream sauce pizza with BBQ chicken, sweet onion, BBQ sauce, smoked gouda, pizza with just wild mushrooms, country fried steak with potato puree, black pepper sauce, Mountain trout with calabreses sausage, kale, white beans, lemon oil.

Rose’rita

2 parts Margarita Mix

1 part Bourbon

Grenadine, optional

Maraschino cherries, optional

Mix Margarita and bourbon in a glass over ice. Add a dash of grenadine - do not mix. The red color will settle near the bottom of the glass for a nice multi color effect. Garnish with two cherries. Enjoy.