





































 

Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture 9:2 (2022): 125-127 ©American Folklore Society 2022 

 

Review of: 
The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South. 
John T. Edge. New York: Penguin Press, 2017. Pp. 370, selected bibliography, index.  
 
Review By: Stephanie M. Kaczynski 
 
The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South bills itself as a people’s history of 
the modern U.S. South told through food. Rather than strive for an encyclopedic 
chronology, John T. Edge describes the structure as “an album of snapshots” or “a menu of 
dishes” to describe the vignettes of people, place, and food woven together to paint a 
complex picture of the South (3).  
 
Bookended by a foreword that honors the late John Egerton and an afterword that centers 
Southerners’ shared palette amid ongoing regional problems, Potlikker Papers consists of 
an introduction followed by five parts, each covering a two-decade time period. In the 
introduction, Edge argues that “food narratives illumine history,” making the case for an 
understanding of food culture in the U.S. South that traces political movements, economic 
shifts, social ideals, and, above all, the people cooking, eating, and connecting over Southern 
cuisine (7). 
 
In part one, “Freedom Struggles (1950s-1970s),” Edge explores the South during the Civil 
Rights Movement. Chapter One, “Kitchen Tables,” describes the Black women who fed 
protesters as grassroots conversations took place in their kitchens and clubhouses. Chapter 
Two, “Restaurant Theaters,” details the painful performances of Black waitstaff serving 
segregated white restaurants as well as those restaurants’ resistance to federally ordered 
integration. Chapter Three, “Poor Power,” addresses both the Johnson administration’s 
“national war on poverty” (54) and community-led efforts to feed Black Southerners, such 
as Fannie Lou Hamer’s Freedom Farm. And Chapter Four, “Black Power,” focuses on 
Southern Black nationalists’ post-segregation efforts to obtain farmland, develop Black-
owned co-ops, and uplift black restauranteurs. 
 
Part two, “Rise of the Folk (1970s & 1980s),” describes the rebranding and exportation of 
Southern culture post-Civil Rights. Chapter Five, “Landed Hippies,” examines hippies from 
across the U.S. who established countercultural communes in the South’s arable land. 
Chapter Six, “Faster Food,” chronicles Southern fast-food restaurants’ efforts to popularize 
and export Southern cooking across the country. Chapter Seven, “Carter Country,” 
discusses how Carter’s rise to the U.S. presidency impacted national attitudes toward 
Southern music, accents, and cuisine. And Chapter Eight, “Black Pastorals,” describes Edna 
Lewis’ recentering of poor Southern Black food through her philosophy of cooking as an 
“act of recollection” requiring connection to the land and its seasons (154). 
 
In part three, “Gentrification (1980s & 1990s),” Edge engages the impact of increasing 
wealth and urbanization on Southern food culture. Chapter Nine, “Kingmaker and Kings,” 
tells of New York Times food editor and restaurant critic Craig Claiborne’s popularization of 
Southern chefs and cuisines. Chapter Ten, “Generation Grits,” navigates the debate between 
gourmet food and regional dishes within Southern restaurant cuisine. And Chapter Eleven, 



Kaczynski, Review, The Potlikker Papers               Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture 9:2 (2022) 

 

126 

“Cooking School,” details Nathalie Dupree’s influence on yet another renaissance of 
Southern cuisine. 
 
Part four, “New Respect (1990-2010s),” covers the artisanal renaissance that has 
reconnected Southern farmers and cooks in recent decades. Chapter Twelve, “Artisanal 
Pantry,” details a return to craft production of grits, ham, moonshine, and more. Chapter 
Thirteen, “Restaurant Renaissance,” describes the revival of restaurants both high-end and 
down-home. And Chapter Fourteen, “Pits and Pitmasters,” honors barbecue’s emergence as 
a “national folk food” (264) and celebrates white and black pitmasters alike.  
 
Finally, in part five, “Future Tenses (2010s Forward),” Edge looks to the present and the 
horizon. Chapter Fifteen, “Political Reckonings,” addresses present-day efforts to reckon 
with the South’s history of slavery and dispossession, from Michael Twitty’s response to 
the Paula Deen controversy to organizing for migrant farmworker rights. Chapter Sixteen, 
“Nuevo Sud,” recognizes Southern food as “‘the original fusion cuisine’” (294) and 
celebrates indigenous, Black, and migrant culinary “creolizations,” both historic and 
current (300).  
 
Potlikker Papers presents a rich history of a complex region. Edge succeeds in making the 
compelling case for food as an appropriate and illuminative entry point into the 
intertwined political, economic, and social dynamics continually being renegotiated in the 
U.S. South. In doing so, Edge gracefully embraces the tensions and contradictions of the 
region. One tension throughout Potlikker Papers is the desire to understand the South as a 
cohesive region, particularly in light of the recent renaissance Edge describes. Edge is not 
entirely successful in this aim, in part because his writing thrives in particularities—of 
people, foods, histories, and regions—that challenge sweeping statements about the South 
or Southerners as a whole. 
 
Certain sections, such as Edge’s discussions of the impacts of gentrification and the cultural 
impact of landed hippies, merit a more critical or at least more nuanced perspective such as 
that given to Edge’s portrayal of post-Katrina New Orleans. For example, to conclude part 
three, “Gentrification (1980s & 1990s),” Edge states that gentrification, while often 
recognized as a “negative cultural force,” “had some positive effects” in helping the South 
gain broad consideration and respect (212). In a section that focuses almost entirely on 
white Southerners’ efforts to gentrify and “revive” Southern food culture, a deeper focus on 
the people displaced and dispossessed in the process would have offered a more complete 
picture, though Edge does delve more pointedly into these themes in the book’s later 
chapters. 
 
Additionally, more information about methodology would have enriched Potlikker Papers. 
Edge sets out to write a “people’s history” of the South, and, certainly, a plethora of people 
grace its pages. Yet many of the book’s characters are renowned chefs, restaurant owners, 
cookbook authors, and food magazine editors. Edge might have offered information about 
how certain people, stories, and themes were chosen as representative of each era, and 
which people or foods had been erased from the archives, relegated to anonymity. 



Kaczynski, Review, The Potlikker Papers               Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture 9:2 (2022) 

 

127 

Potlikker Papers is an important read for food scholars, but also scholars interested in 
tracing the political through the quotidian and for anyone searching for a nuanced window 
into political, cultural, and social elements of the U.S. South. Above all, Edge’s work offers a 
beautiful tribute to a complex and changing region as its people continue to grapple with its 
history, future, and identity. 


