Food Author Ronni Lundy: 20 Questions - Ace Weekly
f you’re already a fan of Kentucky native and food writer Ronni Lundy, you know not to pick up her new book, Sorghum’s Savor , expecting a conventional “cookbook. ” The books that came before it — although they contain wondrous recipes — aren’t cookbooks either ( Butter Beans to Blackberries. Her writing, then as now, would be better characterized as part anthropology, sociology, family history, travelogue, and part southern literary renaissance. She responds, “I would have to own that while I love to cook, recipe is not my primary interest in writing about food. I am profoundly grateful to those for whom it is and for their work, which informs mine, and I try to live up to good practice and honor great cooking when it comes to writing recipes, but I am as interested as much in why we are doing what we’re... The great thing in writing about food (and the secret subtext hidden in many recipes) is its revelation of the voices of people who traditionally have not been consulted when history is told—even their own history. Recipe and cookbooks are where we hear what women’s lives were actually like in different eras, and what constituted daily life for the family. “With Sorghum’s Savor, my interest in its past had to do with discovering why sorghum syrup—once made all across the continent—has persisted as a process and a beloved flavor in the mountain south when it has faded elsewhere. Source: www.aceweekly.com
