FEATURED CHEF OF THE MONTH

Delta daughter, French-pastry-school scholar, Iron Chef contestant, bakery owner—Martha Foose’s résumé is straight from a Southern foodie’s dream. Her burgeoning career continued with the 2008 release of her first book, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook, which is not just a cookbook but a testament to the characters who define her native land. (And it won a James Beard Award for American Cookbook, to boot!)

Foose first dabbled in cooking while working at Square Books, a bookstore/café in Oxford, Mississippi. After a culinary journey across land and sea, she returned to Mississippi, opening the Bottletree Bakery in Oxford, and, later, Mockingbird Bakery in Greenwood, Mississippi.

Diving into the heady concoction of local fare and recipes in Screen Doors and Sweet Tea will make you understand why the cookbook author continues to call the South home. (Three of Foose’s recipes appear after the interview.)

We recently talked to the fiery author-chef about recipe envy, flaming pastries, the book she almost wrote, and other heated topics.

—THE EDITORS

THE OXFORD AMERICAN: What do you love about cooking?

MARTHA FOOSE: It uses all your senses, and it makes people happy when you give them cobbler.

THE OA: What do you hate about it?

MF: Doing the dishes.

THE OA: What’s the most exotic item you've ever eaten or cooked with?

MF: A puff adder in South Africa—not the snake, but a big sausage made of heart, kidneys, and other parts of gemsbok [an African antelope].

THE OA: Why do cooks seem as kooky as writers and musicians?

MF: Might be because most of us work really hard and pour our hearts and souls into what we do with little or no chance of making money.

THE OA: What qualities do great cooks have?

MF: Really fine cooks understand that we are working for others to make them full and happy, not to stand around and say, “Oh, what a great cook I am, and look what I can do.”

THE OA: What’s your advice to somebody who wants to be a good cook?

MF: Taste, taste, taste. Learn to use flavor as a language and learn a large vocabulary.

THE OA: What is the most insightful advice about cooking that you’ve ever gotten from another chef?

MF: Sumi Chang, a great pastry chef I worked with in L.A., really helped me understand that your mood while cooking comes through in the end. Just like Tita in Like Water for Chocolate [by Laura Esquivel].

THE OA: What’s the worst kitchen experience you’ve ever had?

MF: Burning three hundred croissants in front of a crowd of about one hundred people on my first day as first baker at La Brea Bakery.

THE OA: To outsiders, growing up in the Mississippi Delta seems like a mystic experience. How did growing up in Yazoo City both help and hinder your career in cooking?

MF: I think it helped for the most part…Yazoo is a cooking town. There are families of great cooks around there. Also, there weren’t many places to go out and eat, so if you wanted anything the least bit exotic you had to make it yourself. That led to a lot of experimenting.

THE OA: With regards to music and writing, especially, the Delta is a very creative place. Do you see a connection between those kinds of Delta creativity and Delta food?

MF: The Delta is populated by improvisers of the highest order. We have to make the most out of what we have and keep each other entertained.

THE OA: After growing up in the Delta, you went to France and were instructed at the fabled pastry school École Lenôtre. Did that formal training cause you to change the way you cooked meals and recipes from home?

MF: My grandmother thought I just learned to smoke and drink over there (I really learned that right here in the Delta), but I learned to make one hell of a pie crust and came home with a new respect for letting simple flavors really shine.

THE OA: When you set out for culinary school, was baking your first love?

MF: Yes, after I spent a day cleaning sweetbreads [found in animal glands], I knew baking was going to be my main focus.

THE OA: Southerners will instantly recognize the comfort food in your book. What Southern comfort food do you think should be part of every American’s diet/experience?

MF: Cheese grits!

THE OA: You were originally planning a different sort of cookbook when an editor asked you to write a Southern cookbook instead. What was your original idea?

MF: A Bun in the Oven: Baking from Pregnancy Through Baby’s First Years.

THE OA: Are there any dishes you’ve come across of late that you now wish were part of your cookbook?

MF: I really wish I had come up with Chris Lilly’s Loaf-Pan Chicken recipe in his Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Book. It is mighty fine.

THE OA: Has the reaction from readers to any part of your book surprised you?

MF: I have been surprised by how emotionally folks have responded to the stories and flavors. Letters from across the world have showed up in my mailbox (even one addressed "Martha Foose, General Delivery, Tchula, MS," and I loved that in this day of instant Twitter crap) e-mails from Tel Aviv to Antwerp all have shared how much the book has meant and how it has allowed those far from home to share a taste of home with friends and family.

THE OA: What is the future of traditional Southern cuisine?

MF: We have been locavores in these parts for all time…nice to see other folks catching on.

THE OA: If you changed the basic design of chef attire, what would we be looking at?

MF: Guayabera shirts.

THE OA: How has being a mother changed your cooking?

MF: I’m over myself as a food snob. If you can get a good home-cooked meal on the table that makes everybody happy, that is a success.

THE OA: What is your favorite taste of summer?

MF: Fresh figs.

THE OA: By the way, which restaurants in the South do you always get excited about visiting?

MF: MiLa [New Orleans], Bayona [New Orleans], The Mayflower Café [Jackson, Mississippi] Snackbar [Oxford, Mississippi], August [New Orleans], Madidi [Clarksdale, Mississippi].

THE OA: We know that you’ve been on book tour. What tips do you have for eating well on the road?

MF: Pack a cooler.

THE OA: Who do you consider to be the best writer on food and why?

MF: Jim Harrison. Chicken thighs.

[See Harrison’s book The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand]

THE OA: Should cooks date other cooks?

MF: Yes. I have been married to my husband, Donald Bender, for thirteen years, most of which have been spent in the kitchen together. Generally, if you can stand the heat…

THE OA TEN: Questions we ask of every interviewee. Wee!

1. What superstition do you have?

MF: Put the salt down when you pass it. Spit when you see a black cat, hang a dead snake on a fence to make it rain, don't put a hat on the bed.

2. What would you like to change about yourself?

MF: My aversion to exercise.

3. What are you still trying to accomplish in your professional career?

MF: Finishing my second book, A Southerly Course.

4. What is your hidden talent?

MF: Songwriting.
 
5. What subject causes you to rant?

MF: Nutritional disparity.

6. What is the biggest mistake you ever made in your professional life?

MF: Thinking there is someone other than myself that has my best interest at heart. Business is just that, business.

7. What is one thing that you used to dislike but that you now like?

MF: Cabbage.

8. What profoundly underrated book, album, or movie would you like to champion for us?

MF: Shim, by Reuben Davis, a novel set in the 1900s Mississippi Delta.

9. What is your favorite line from a song?

MF: “Spanish moss in the moonlight, the distant echo of a dogfight”—from “Lakeside” by Blue Mountain.

10. What was your favorite childhood toy?

MF: A Spirograph.

Summer Fare

A tasty meal by Martha Foose.

Mailbox Cocktail

Crushed ice
At least 2 ounces good bourbon
2 ounces ginger ale
Lime wedge

Fill an insulated tumbler with crushed ice. Pour the bourbon over the ice. Top with ginger ale and a squeeze of fresh lime. Makes 1 drink.

Curried Sweet Potato Soup

3 pounds dark orange sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 leeks, white and tender green parts only, chopped
1 tablespoons grated peeled fresh ginger
2 (2-inch) pieces lemongrass
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoons lemon curry powder blend
1 quart vegetable broth
1 (14.5 ounce) can coconut milk
Fresh pork rinds for garnish

In a large pot, cook the sweet potatoes in the butter for 5 minutes over medium heat. Add the leeks, ginger, and lemongrass. Cook for 3 minutes over low heat or until the leeks are tender. Add the garlic and curry, and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the broth and simmer until sweet potatoes are very tender, about 20 minutes.

With an immersion blender, or carefully with a blender, puree the soup. Stir in the coconut milk and warm through over low heat.

Ladle into bowls and top with a pork rind.

Silent Shade Cobbler

5 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
3 cups sugar
1 cup whole milk
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread the blueberries in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish sprayed with nonstick spray. Drizzle the lemon juice over the berries and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, the nutmeg, mace, 1 1/2 cups of the sugar, the milk, butter, and vanilla. Spoon over the berries and spread in an even layer.

In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the cornstarch. Sprinkle this mixture over the batter. Pour the boiling water evenly over the top of the cobbler. Poke a few holes down in the batter with the handle of a wooden spoon. Bake for 1 hour or until the top is golden brown, frosted, and shiny. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves 8 (or more).

Source, all recipes: Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, Martha Hall Foose.

Photos of Martha Foose: This page, Andrew Lamb. Home page interview banner: Ben Fink.