We stand in line for hot honey chicken biscuits.
We are on a road trip through Atlanta, Memphis and Nashville, and we pause for breakfast at Atlanta’s Bomb Biscuit Co, which started as a pop-up. The buttery biscuits are the stars here, and they come with a slew of locally loved ingredients: country ham, pork sausage gravy and creamy grits topped with melted cheese.
Breakfast at Sunrise Memphis | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
At the popular Sunrise Memphis, the hearty breakfast menu offers all the classics: a stack of buttermilk pancakes smothered in maple syrup, French toast topped with bacon and a ‘breakfast shot’ of Lemon-infused vodka and southern sweet tea. In the afternoon, we settle at Central Barbeque for a slab of pork ribs, which are marinated overnight and slow-smoked before being served with cups of deliciously messy, smoky barbeque sauce, slaw and potato salad.
We eat a flaky version of the biscuits again at Biscuit Love in Nashville: as part of a Southern Benny, topped with sausage gravy, shaved country ham and fried eggs to miniature versions sticky with home-made jam.
Shrimp and mushrooms served over cheese grits at Biscuit Love | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
En route, between all the eating, we meet some of southern America’s best chefs, to find out how hearty Southern cooking is being both celebrated and tweaked for a contemporary audience.
At the iconic Peabody in Memphis, known for its daily duck march, modern American cuisine meets French presentation with Chef Keith Clinton’s food at Chez Philippe. (I am not joking about the ducks by the way — they are guided to and from a fountain in the lobby by a snazzily attired ‘duck master’ every day.)
Chef Keith Clinton | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“I have lived in Memphis my whole life,” says Keith, adding that traditional food generally meant comforting, heavy Southern cooking, and he is finding ways to showcase the same flavours in more contemporary dishes. “We want diners to recognise the ingredients, and enjoy the depth and layers of the flavours. We find ways to create that without cooking food so heavy that it sticks to your bones,” he smiles.
Dinner is served as a tasting menu featuring ravioli topped with shaved porcini mushrooms, elk tenderloin and scallops served with trout roe and kohlrabi. “We achieve depth of flavour with fermentation and preservation techniques,” says Keith, adding that they work on preserving seasonal, local produce from tomatoes to green strawberries.
We drive to Nashville next, pausing for a lunch consisting of Prince’s hot chicken, which goes from mild and medium to XXX hot. It is addictively spicy, with hot crunchy edges.
The kitchen at Husk | Photo Credit: Hunter Hart
At dinner time, we gather at Husk, housed in a historic 1880s home, which was the residence of a 19th-century Nashville mayor. Over here Chef Ben Norton creates beautiful, sustainable food sourced from local farms. “I’ve grown up in the South, and when I was growing up a lot of what we ate came out of my grandmother’s garden,” says Ben, adding, “Southern cooking is pretty vegetable forward because that is what was available, and what was cheap. But when people think of Southern food, it is just a lot of butter and fat.”
Chef Ben Norton | Photo Credit: Hunter Hart
Husk sources its ingredients from surrounding farms. “They are all friends, growing our vegetables and raising animals,” says Ben. As dinner begins, we watch chefs wander around the garden in front of the restaurant plucking herbs for our meal. “We grow nasturtium and marigold, to use the leaves and flowers in our food. We have a variety of mint and basil, and we have beds filled with larger produce like tomatoes and peppers,” says Ben.
Brunch at Husk | Photo Credit: Hunter Hart
Dinner is an eye-opener: the kitchen puts together remarkably intricate dishes with unexpected ingredients. There are glazed pig ears served in lettuce wraps, with a dollop of mayo and crunchy peanuts. Heritage pork and alligator meatballs with farm eggs, barbeque togarashi and soy. And there is quail, with sweet potato, sarsaparilla, and peanuts. We end dinner with a decadent dive into the desserts: grilled vanilla semifreddo with pumpkin butter, dark chocolate crumb cake with banana and black walnuts, and finally a bracing pineapple upside-down cake ice cream.
“We let the vegetables dictate the menu. We look at what all our suppliers have, and then build the menu around what is available,” says Ben, adding “We change it as soon as possible. I want this to be somewhere locals eat.”
Chef Deb Paquette’s trendy Etc. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Global influences meet Nashville ingredients at Chef Deb Paquette’s trendy Etc. A local legend, Deb has influenced the city’s vibrant dining scene for 40 years. She opened Etch in 2012 in the heart of downtown, filled with music and bars, and its success led to the opening of Etc. in 2016.
Chef Deb Paquette | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Over here the cornmeal catfish is served with coconut rice cakes, tamarind banana Balinese sauce and smoked pineapple oil. Or you can order a vegetarian mushroom basmati khichidi, with coconut tofu curry, miso roasted oyster mushrooms, red beet sauce and mint mustard oil. If you are in the mood for something heartier, there is a grilled pork rib eye teamed with papaya flan sauce, coffee rum mole, purple potato polenta and a peanut chilli crunch.
Golden cauliflower bowl with beet mutabal at Etc. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Raised in south Florida with a Georgia dad and grandparents, Deb says she grew up eating okra, cornbread, greens, black eyed peas, and plenty of black pepper grits, which are now on her menu.
Deb’s eclectic style incorporates all her favorite spices, produce, and global recipes. “We pickle mustard greens, make Turkish black eyed pea salsa, Louisiana orange hot sauce for chicken, Peruvian coleslaw, Moroccan spiced grits, candied fig, sage, and goat cheese cornbread! Beets — a true Southern delight — became quite an icon on our menus. Our grilled okra was a first for Nashville. Our cauliflower remoulade received great accolades,” she says, adding “We put a lot of love in our dishes. Our passion is to have the guest experience an explosion of flavours.”
The writer was in Atlanta, Memphis and Nashville on the invitation of Brand USA
Published - February 07, 2025 03:40 pm IST
