Yes, I'm speaking of Southern food, but not in relation to race. I'm talking more generically about the connotation of a "Southern ethnicity" my friend W. J. Carroll and I have been delving into of late
(By the way, check out his blog! http://reclaimingsouthernfood.blogspot.com/ )
We are a unique people, yes shaped by many influences, but still we are at heart an ancient people with a culture we claim as a birthright. Much as been taken from us, maligned, and denigrated, so our cultural has been paid for in full. Is it fair then, right, ethical, what have you, for those marketing the South and selling our culture for their personal gain to have no earthly tie to it but for their choice of an address?
Think on this. We have so many "foodies" who've taken on celebrity status via television, cookbooks, newspaper & blogs using the South as their platform, but how do we react to those who CHOSE an interest to exploit, but have no childhood experiences to mold and shape their viewpoints, much less any influence by Southern parents!
Do you really know us if you made an adult decision to assume an identity we were born with? Are you entitled to speak as one of us? Are you worthy of speaking FOR us & our food?
I believe these are fundamental questions to be asked BEFORE bestowing authoritative status upon celebrity chefs, food critiques and writers. Is it a case of appropriation to take a regional identity and base your career on it, never divulging your legitimate background?
Granted, some "in-comer" chefs are up front about where they're actually from. Rachel Ray is a half-breed Southerner who never fails to explain fully her mixed-region background. I always appreciated her explicit pride in both the cultures she hails from, and clearly represents in her celebrity status.
Like Rachel, Emeril Lagasse has never claimed to be from anywhere other than Massachusetts, though he's certainly capitalized upon the history, heritage and culinary legacy of New Orleans specifically. Choosing to work in that city didn't make him an authority on local cooking styles, to be sure, so did he over-sell the imagery? Did Emeril inadvertently discover that the inference of Southern roots gave him a leg-up in his advancement as a celebrity chef? Let's be realistic, his first endeavors in the greater public eye were fairly honest, but as his reputation advanced, so did the implied "Southernness" of his presence, his dialogue, his attitude, and his portrayal.
Lagasse didn't start out to appropriate a culture, but in "essence" he did just that when he took that identity and ran with to the bank.
The South isn't the only place to fall prey to misleading cultural origins regarding culinary personages. Take for instance Martha Stewart. She was catapulted to fame based upon her inferred "Mayflower Society" lineage. She created a persona of one with an ancient New England ancestry complete with Vassar-like style, grace, and sophistication, all quite false. Martha Kostyra apparently is a second-generation Polish-American, the granddaughter of a New Jersey tavern keeper. So Stewart/Kostyra really created a characterization, something we can't charge Lagasse with, at least.
Our Southern "Martha Kostyra" is sure the real thing. Whether or not your opinions have been tainted by the liberal media, Paula Deen can never be accused of being falsely Southern. Yet other great professional Southern chefs and writers are, well, not what they appear. Like Emeril, some have moved south and assumed identities, a few never publicly acknowledging their true origins after achieving culinary fame. There is a degree of dishonesty here, in my opinion. There is also, as with Martha Stewart, a degree of shame that exudes from such a complicated masquerade.
So, how do we view our exalted icons of Southern food once we discover they were born in New Jersey to a Jewish immigrant family from Chicago? Do we feel a tad betrayed reading their "Southern" cookbooks, now knowing they were brought up with no clue as to what the South was or meant? Do we trust them? Do we continue to elevate them in status when we conclude they are perpetuating a lie? More importantly, are they the true perpetrators of the great Southern appropriation?
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