What's a tamale? John T. Edge 06.05.09

OK why is Ben making us read about chicken? That was my first train of thought when I read the title of the article assigned before John Edge was to speak. When someone asks us what we’ve been doing as interns so far, a good portion of the answer has something to do with restaurants. We’ve been eating out quit a bit but I never thought we’d have a speaker come to talk to us about food in the south.
Edge kept what he had to say brief yet very informative. His entire presentation was about how “we value the food, we celebrate it but often times we don’t celebrate the people behind it.”
John Edge is of the four staff members of SFA who do “oral history work”. He studies people not just food. Edge uses a certain vocabulary when he speaks of food and cooks that I’ve never heard used in that sense before. For instance, he described the process of making bacon and ham as art. When he spoke of the bartenders he said “there is an art” to what they do. He presented the idea that the bartender has a life story to tell “from behind the bar”. Edge also connects his work to 10 Dollars an Hour. He explained that his job was about getting to know the lady behind the stove and to try to make sense of her story.
Edge expressed that what cooks do is “complex and smart”. He looks at everyday life and everyday cooking to help people understand the systems they use; for example, Edge told a story of how Southern restaurant or shop owners would raise their own pigs. Wood turns out to be more expensive than the pork itself so they would get free wood after storms and by offering to cut down threatening trees. They would also use open cardboard boxes as floor mats and throw them away at the end of the working day after having processed the meat so that they wouldn’t have to sweep. These are all very clever ways of budgeting for a business. I now understand why Edge describes it as “smart”.
The speaker also spoke about the importance of knowing where your food comes from. He described towns where customers know exactly how their food is processed. The words he used to describe these fresh foods are “natural and honest”. After having heard such a presentation, who wouldn’t want to boycott their local grocery stores!?