Ben Starr

The Ultimate Food Geek

Tag: Southern

  • “Ambassador Hotel” Black Bottom Pie

    The “black bottom pie” is an ancient staple of Southern home cooking…most often found at church potlucks, family reunions, and Sunday suppers.  It’s not common in home kitchens these days, but a unique institution in Los Angeles, of all places, gave this regional favorite a solid spot on the national dessert roster.  The Ambassador hotel…

  • Masterchef 4 Recap: Paula Deen 2.0 and Fancy foods (S4E22)

    For the second time this week, hello, Starr-struck citizens of the internet! Since Ben Starr is partaking in his annual pilgrimage to Burning Man, I am doing a temporary takeover of his blog in order to write the MasterChef recaps that so many of you are so fond of. For those of you that don’t…

  • Hoppin’ John (Black Eyed Peas for New Year’s)

    Hoppin’ John (or Hoppy John) is a centuries-old tradition in the American South.  On New Year’s Day…sometimes even at the stroke of midnight…families and friends grab steaming bowls of this hearty stew of black eyed peas, rice, and pork, which is supposed to give us good luck throughout the new year.  The theory is that…

  • Meemaw’s Skillet Buttermilk Cornbread

    My maternal grandmother Meemaw and her mother, Granny Proctor, and her mother, Granny Williams, all used cast-iron skillets to cook the majority of their meals, and they did it right on the top of a wood-fired cast-iron stove.  Mom still makes cornbread in the cast-iron skillets she inherited from Meemaw, who got them from Granny…