Let’s Eat Seeks to Tell the Story of Tennessee Food – Nashville Scene

The exhibition is on display Aug. 9-Feb. 2 at the Tennessee State Museum

Four-Way Soul Food Restaurant

Nashville is home to hot chicken and acres of farm-to-table restaurants. Memphis rightfully claims status as a mecca of barbecue. East Tennessee is the cradle of Appalachian cuisine. But what exactly is the impact of Tennessee food in general?

“That’s a big topic to take a bite out of,” says Ashley Howell, executive director of the Tennessee State Museum. Howell and her team attempt to explore the deep history and influences of the state’s culinary culture in a new exhibition called Let’s Eat! Origins and Evolutions of Tennessee Food, which opens this week at the new museum on the edge of Germantown.

It’s an exhibit that covers what might be expected — the origins of Southern food staples like barbecue and soul food, for instance — but also lesser-known items and stories from Tennessee’s unique culinary history. There’s an exploration of the influence of West African ingredients, for instance, as well as details on the wide array of Southern food festivals that take place throughout the state and elsewhere.

Rob DeHart is the curator of the exhibition, which will run through Feb. 2. “We started planning this back in early fall with the idea of showing how cultural influences of the past influence the flavors of the present,” says DeHart.

Howell says ideas for the exhibition were met with initial support, but also some questions: “Everyone said ‘That’s great! Now how are you going to do that?’ The question was how to define that. The idea changed into different iterations during the planning process.”

Like most major exhibitions, some thematic planning arose around what sort of artifacts were already in the museum’s collection. Many Tennesseans don’t realize it, but the Tennessee State Museum currently possesses more than 160,000 cataloged items, and about 80 percent of the artifacts featured in Let’s Eat! are from the permanent collection, including some that have never been exhibited before.

“We talked about exhibits that can connect our collection of artifacts with the Tennessee community,” says Howell. “Then we began to identify stories and open up the topic with jumping-off points. It was also important to make sure that we told stories that would be interesting to and representative of people across the state.”

Even with access to that massive treasure trove of historical Tennessee antiquities, the museum had to borrow and acquire some new objects as well. Howell explains another benefit of the planning process for a new major exhibition: “It helps us identify collection gaps when we say, ‘I wish we had something like that.’ We ended up acquiring objects that will stay as part of the collection.”

Manny’s House of Pizza Delivery Tricycle A tricycle dating 1980 to 1985, formerly used by Nashville restaurant owner Manny Macca to make deliveries to nearby customersPhoto: Daniel MeigsAmong the relics that will be displayed are the delivery tricycle from Manny’s House of Pizza in the Arcade; a beaten biscuit table and beater used to make the unique hardtack breads popular in 19th-century Tennessee; the original tamale maker used by Frank Varallo Sr. when he opened Varallo’s in 1907; and a cast-iron skillet and the original cash register from Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, which were used by the founder of fiery fowl himself, Thornton Prince III. “It was even older than the family thought it was,” adds Howell. “We dated it back to 1910.”

After compiling the list of items available for exhibition, the museum staff collaborated with a group of scholars to organize thematic elements for the show. The august staff of academics included Alice Randall of Vanderbilt University, Fred Sauceman of East Tennessee State University and Micah Trapp of The University of Memphis. The group brought a wealth of knowledge on culinary topics and offered suggestions of people and businesses to feature. They also contributed a necessary breadth of knowledge from across the state.

“We asked them what was essential to tell the story of Tennessee food,” explains DeHart. “We had frequent conference calls with the scholars and would send them drafts of the scripts for our displays and videos to review. They were very engaged and essential to developing the exhibit content, and it was great to get their help in recontextualizing the items in our collection.”

Working from the suggestions of the board of scholars, DeHart and his team began their field work, visiting restaurants, farmers and food festivals all over Tennessee. They collected interviews, shot beautiful photographs and filmed videos that all make up the multimedia experience of Let’s Eat!

“The best part of the field group was meeting all of these passionate people and hearing their stories,” says DeHart. “It always goes back to family and community. We met with the owner of The Four Way Soul Food Restaurant in Memphis, and he told us that his dad had bought the restaurant to revitalize their neighborhood. Colleen Cruze Bhatti of Cruze Farm in Knoxville shared how her father Earl started up his dairy farm to keep the land from becoming just another suburban housing development.”Cash Register from Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack The original cash register used by Thornton Prince when he opened his legendary Nashville hot chicken restaurant Courtesy of André Prince JeffriesPhoto: Daniel Meigs

Even as a historian, DeHart was frequently surprised by what he learned on his culinary road trips. “I enjoyed experiencing the diversity,” he says. “I had no idea that The Farm Community in Lewis County [near Summertown] was so important to the history of vegetarian cooking. Their 1975 cookbook taught people in California all about that lifestyle. That’s one of the fascinating things about Tennessee food.”

The team came up with a structure for the exhibition, dividing the space into eight thematic sections. The sections don’t necessarily have to be viewed or interpreted chronologically, freeing museum visitors to choose their own adventure as they wander through the gallery space. Keeping with the exhibition’s Origins and Evolutions subtitle, the displays aren’t just about history — about one-third of them focus on the influences of Tennessee food, with the other two-thirds concentrating on the evolution of the cuisine.

Staff and scholars wanted to ensure that the role of immigrants was represented in both the past and present when telling the story of Tennessee food. “Tennessee food basically comes from the influences of three major groups,” says DeHart. “Southeastern Indians, West Africans and Western Europeans. But from the very beginning, we demanded that recent foreign-born arrivals should also be included.”

One of the four video installations that is part of the exhibition focuses on Mesa Komal, the commercial kitchen at Casa Azafrán, which is owned and operated by Conexión Américas. The kitchen has empowered recent immigrants to Middle Tennessee to sell their foods, allowing them to make a living and share their cultures.

Howell also thought it important to showcase Tennessee farmers. “With the museum’s proximity to the Nashville Farmers’ Market,” she says, “we wanted to make sure to incorporate the importance of the agricultural element to Tennessee food.” Since actual food is prohibited in the museum’s exhibit spaces, the exhibit curators hope to take advantage of their neighbors at the market for additional special programming associated with Let’s Eat! (They’re also really proud of some realistic fake food that the museum’s creative staff mocked up as part of the exhibits.)

Visitors can step around the corner from the upstairs entrance to take a peek at a legendary piece of Tennessee moonshining history, although it’s not technically part of the Let’s Eat! exhibition: “Popcorn” Sutton’s still, which was confiscated by federal authorities when they raided the operation in 2008.

Helen Turner, Helen’s Bar-B-Q, Brownsville, Tenn.

The Exhibit’s Eight Sections

The first thematic section of Let’s Eat! focuses on ancient agriculture and is titled “The Three Sisters,” referring to the trio of crops — beans, squash and corn — that Native Americans planted together during what’s known as the Woodland Period (1000 B.C.-1000 A.D). “We still eat those three together in Tennessee,” says Howell. “And I think visitors will be surprised to learn about their history.” Western European influences are showcased in “The Buckle of the Barbecue Belt,” which examines the introduction of our favorite proteins — pigs, cattle and chickens — to the state and how Tennesseans cook them, with visits to Memphis in May and the Kosher BBQ Fest.

“A Love for Spices” focuses on the influence of West African ingredients on Tennessee cooking. It’s here that the stories of Prince’s and The Four Way are showcased in videos and artifacts. “Cooking for Others” tells the story of how many of Tennessee’s iconic foods were developed by domestic servants and enslaved people cooking for families, as well as by restaurant cooks and boarding-house owners feeding their lodgers. “Through picnics and barbecues, Tennesseans have come together at the table, but it is also where they have been divided,” says DeHart. “For generations, the injustice of slavery and later Jim Crow laws that limited employment opportunities forced some African American women and men to do the cooking in the homes of middle- and upper-class whites. This is how much of Tennessee cuisine developed.”

“Cooking for Others” tells the stories of Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House in Lynchburg and introduces visitors to two important early African American cooks from Tennessee — Malinda Russell and Rufus Estes. Russell was a free black woman born in the early 19th century in Washington County, who published the first known cookbook by a black woman in the United States, Domestic Cook Book: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen. Using a fun modern touch, the museum staff has taken six of her recipes and produced “Tasty Videos,” popular quick-cut YouTube instructional videos that focus on the cook’s hands and the ingredients to demonstrate the preparation of a dish.

“Making Do” shows how Tennesseans have created dishes to help feed their families when times were tough and resources in the kitchen were limited. Here visitors to the exhibition will learn about those unleavened beaten biscuits from the years when yeast was an extravagance, and West Tennessee “slugburgers” from Pat’s Cafe in Selmer where ground pork was extended by the addition of cornmeal. (Not slugs. The name comes from the fact that these burgers used to cost a nickel, colloquially known as a “slug.”) Father of modern fermentation Sandor Katz is also profiled in this section, sharing the story of how he considers fermenting food for preservation to be an act of activism that can free people from the tyranny of depending on others to provide their food.

A different type of preservation is the focus of “Preserving Tennessee Food Traditions,” which depicts how farms and restaurants seek to perpetuate iconic methods of food production. Highlights in this section include profiles of operations such as Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams, Muddy Pond Sorghum, Boyette’s Dining Room in Tiptonville (which serves the best plate of fried crappie you’ll find anywhere), Cruze Farm and Helen’s Barbecue in Brownsville.

The impact of immigrants on the state’s cuisine is highlighted in “Immigration and Tennessee Food.” Both historic and present-day locations are visited in this part of the exhibition, including the Swiss colony of Gruetli, the Hola Hora Latina Festival in Knoxville, the Global Café in Memphis, and Varallo’s Chili and the Conexión Américas’ Mesa Komal in Nashville.

The final section of Let’s Eat! encourages culinary tourism by listing and profiling some of the state’s most interesting food festivals. The Tennessee State Museum worked with the state Department of Tourism to develop a roster of fascinating fests that pay homage to all sorts of specialty foods, from the famous Cornbread Festival in South Pittsburg, Bell Buckle’s RC-MoonPie Festival, and the World’s Biggest Fish Fry in Paris, to more obscure events like Doodle Soup Days in Bradford, Charleston’s International Cowpea Festival and Cook-Off, and three separate festivals dedicated to the lovely pungent springtime treat — the ramp — in Cosby, Flag Pond and Reliance.

The museum is also planning a series of events in association with Let’s Eat!, including a Food, Fun and Family Day with demonstrations, arts-and-crafts opportunities, and programs throughout the day on Aug. 24, as well as an overnight bus trip to experience West Tennessee food on Sept. 8-9, and another day trip to East Tennessee on Oct. 5. Additional programming is still being developed, so visit the exhibit’s web page at tnmuseum.org to keep up to date on the latest information.

Let’s Eat! Origins and Evolutions of Tennessee Food will run Aug.9-Feb. 2 in the second-floor temporary exhibit hall of the Tennessee State Museum at 1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd. There is no admission fee to tour the exhibit, and the museum is free and open to the public 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursdays; and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

Cast iron skillet, from Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, 1940s. Courtesy of André Prince Jeffries;Photo by Daniel Meigs; illustrations by Rachel Briggs.

Let’s Eat! Origins and Evolutions of Tennessee Food

Aug. 9-Feb. 2 at the Tennessee State Museum (1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd.)