695: Sean Brock is Still Learning About Southern Food
The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters
American Public Media
4.3 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2021
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We spend an hour with one of the great champions of Southern foodways, award-winning chef Sean Brock. Raised in rural Virginia, Sean has spent 20 years highlighting the unique culinary characteristics of the South. He is the author of the best-selling book, Heritage, and the newly published, South. Francis talks with Sean about microregional cuisines of the South, the importance of curiosity in the kitchen, and how he survived workaholism.
Broadcast dates for this episode:
- November 1, 2019 (originally aired)
- January 1, 2021 (rebroadcast)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Francis. This show is an encore of an interview we did with Sean Brock. |
| 0:05.0 | He's one of the great chefs of his generation. He's a diehard lover of the South and its many ingredients and traditions. |
| 0:11.6 | And he's been open about his own struggles with mental health. I hope you have a listen. He's great. |
| 0:19.9 | I'm Frances Lamb, and this is The Splendid Table from APM American Public Media, |
| 0:25.5 | a show for curious cooks and eaters. |
| 0:33.7 | About 15 years ago, I was invited to a benefit event for the Southern Foodways Alliance. |
| 0:39.4 | They're a great organization that studies the evolving food culture of the American South. |
| 0:44.4 | Anyway, the thing was like a three-day-long affair with all these great chefs, right? |
| 0:49.4 | And I remember meeting this young chef there. |
| 0:53.7 | He made this cool little dish. |
| 0:55.2 | I guess he would have called what he was making back then molecular gastronomy because |
| 0:59.0 | he took beans and pepper jelly and made them into a shape that beans and pepper jelly have never |
| 1:02.8 | been in before. |
| 1:04.5 | But his food was so different than what everyone else was making that weekend. |
| 1:10.1 | And I appreciated it. And I remember talking with him one night by a fireplace |
| 1:13.8 | after everyone else had gone to bed. |
| 1:15.6 | And he was quiet and thoughtful. |
| 1:18.8 | And I wondered a little bit if he was maybe nervous to be there, right? |
| 1:23.2 | Because he was a lot younger than the other chefs, |
| 1:25.0 | and these were all people who were talked about |
| 1:27.8 | not just as stars of Southern cooking, but literally people who had, quote, saved their cities |
| 1:32.4 | or, you know, who were inspiring a new generation of Southern chefs. |
... |
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