Southern Cuisine

smw_cover.jpgModern Southern is a bit of an oxymoron. Anything “Southern” tends to have old-fashioned built into it. Gena Knox, however, embodies “modern Southern,” and her new cookbook “Southern My Way” echoes that. I mean look at that cover photo. Well-dressed, coiffed and poised. Modern Southern! Modernity aside her cookbook covers all the Southern classics albeit often updated.  Which I think is nice. Too many Southern cookbooks tend to stick to the tried-and-true, the old standbys that everyone is used to.

Knox is a native of a small town in South Georgia. She started helping her mother in the kitchen at a young age. She grew up cooking with fruits and vegetables out of the family’s garden, or from local farms and farmers. Home cooking was the norm for the area. “Southern My Way” is her answer to her upbringing: a compilation of traditional Southern dishes updated with a lighter, healthier approach with a focus on using local ingredients. In fact, cleverly interspersed throughout the book are one to two page breakaways that highlight a local artisan, farmer, or purveyor like for instance the pages on Ted Dennard’s Savannah Bee Company, a small artisan honey company. As I read through the book I liked more and more that Knox was hitting all the 100 miles touchstones.

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ImageWhen blogger Christy Jordan founded SouthernPlate.com in 2008, she never dreamed her posts about the classic comfort food she grew up with in northern Alabama would spark an internet frenzy of interest from foodies everywhere. Now, just two short years later, with millions of visits to her site, her blog has grown by leaps and bounds. And with that growth spurt, Jordan is taking the next step in her career as the darling of easy, no-fuss Southern favorites with the publication of her first cookbook, SOUTHERN PLATE.

In preparation for the book’s launch, Christy and her family recently sat down with reporter Donna Florio of Southern Living magazine.

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