From the Kingsport Times-News.
Sauceman offers a serving of culture and food in his first book
*/04/23/2006/
*By LEIGH ANN LAUBE
Fred Sauceman has spent years driving through the hills and hollows of
southern Appalachia, searching, he says, for the tastes that define and
sustain the region's people.
For three years now, readers of GoTriCities have been along for the
ride, as Sauceman has spotlighted in his weekly column the places and
food that make this region unique.
You can read more of Sauceman's discoveries in his first book, "The
Place Setting: Timeless Tastes of the Mountain South, from Bright Hope
to Frog Level" ($25; Mercer University Press).
"It's a book about southern Appalachian food culture," he said. "I think
it tries to tell the story of a region's people through food, and it's a
region largely overlooked by the national food press."
"The Place Setting" tells the stories of a fall family reunion around a
kettle of cushaw butter, the art of barbecuing fresh ham in a Tennessee
hollow, and how each year on the Friday closest to June 11 at one local
roadhouse, King Kamehameha reigns again.
He tells you where the creation of a banana split has become an
architectural feat, outside which burger joint Hank Williams is believed
to have spoken his last words, and which local landmark places exactly
one ounce of chili on its hot dogs.
Sauceman, who serves as senior writer and executive assistant to the
president for public affairs at East Tennessee State University, grew up
in Greene County around beans, cornbread, homemade kraut, and aunts in
the restaurant business. His penchant for roadside restaurants dates
back to his childhood.
After years of southern Appalachian cooking, Sauceman tried to escape
his roots by going international - sampling Persian, Hungarian, German,
Indian - but he's home again.
"I have come full circle, and I appreciate more and more what I grew up
with as a kid in Greeneville in the '50s and '60s," he said.
"Appachian food," Sauceman said, "is still a home-based cuisine, very
attuned to the seasons, to what's in the garden, to what's in the
forest. You can't find dried apple stack cakes in restaurants. It's
home-based. One reason for that is it's so labor intensive."
Along the way, Sauceman discovered the Native American influence on
Southern cooking.
"Another thing that kept coming through to me is the influence that
Native American people, the Cherokees, had on our way of eating - the
cushaws, the corn, the ramps. The Cherokee believed ramps cleansed your
body in the spring."
Cherokees believed that during winter, your blood would thicken, and
ramps - a wild mountain leek - could cleanse and thin your blood. Once
an emblem of poverty, Sauceman said, ramps are now both scarce and
chic."The Place Setting's" chapters are divided by topic: "The Land and
the Larder," "Drugstore, Drive-In and Gas Station Dining," "Short-Order
Splendor," "Hickory in the Highlands" and "Hefty Tables."
With a few exceptions, the locales are between Bright Hope, in the lower
end of Greene County, and Frog Level, just below Tazewell, Va.He
submitted so much material to his publisher that they gave him a choice
- one book with no photos, or two books with photos.
The choice, he said, was a no-brainer, and a second helping of "The
Place Setting" will be out next year.
Avoiding national chain restaurants, Sauceman chose the book's entries
first based on longevity."Has the place been around for a long time? Has
it been in the same family? The same ownership? What is this restaurant
doing that may be different from other places? So many of the places got
started around the Great Depression. That says a lot about the fortitude
and backbone of the owners," he said.Sauceman believes you don't have to
have roots here to enjoy the "The Place Setting."
"I think there has been a resurgence of interest in Southern food," he
said. "I think there's a fascination by people who don't have a
connection, but who are interested since it's so rooted in tradition and
history. This book is very much of a place. Appalachian people are very
loyal to place. They're defined by place."
Sauceman will sign copies of the book from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday,
April 29, at Mary's Kitchen Shop, 202 E. Center St., Kingsport.
"The Place Setting" is available at Mary's, Books-A-Million, Barnes &
Noble, and through the publisher at
www.mupress.org.
