It was long in the making, and hotly anticipated, but it’s here. It’s finally here. Cornbread Nation 4, the anthology of the South, serves up a 53-course celebration of Southern food, Southern cooking, and the people and traditions behind them. Editors Dale Volberg Reed and John Shelton Reed combed magazines, newspapers, books, and journals to bring you a best-of gathering that’s certain to satisfy everyone from omnivorous chowhounds to the most discerning student of regional foodways.
Writes Scott Peacock, executive chef of Watershed Restaurant and recipient of the James Beard Award for Best Chef Southeast, “The writers in Cornbread Nation 4 form a patchwork quilt of voices celebrating the rich and varied heritage that is Southern cooking.”

Here’s just a sampler: Edna Lewis indulges the joys of spring, and Rick Bragg reports on the spirit of New Orleans. Hal Crowther attends the World Invitational Rib Championship, while novelist Pat Conroy visits Birmingham’s Highlands Bar & Grill. One of our favorite writers, Molly O’Neill, muses on the South’s almost religious connection to sugar, and the peripatetic Lee Bros. observe a cook at work on a chicken purloo, a dish as African as it is American — just to drop a name or two. (And even I — Yankee of all Yankees — have a piece on the venerable pit personality and master, Ricky Parker, proving the South isn’t defined by state borders.)

Cornbread Salad
Cornbread
Cornbread Salad with Arugula and Herbs