Summer 2016 | Sea Island Life Magazine Spring/Summer 2016 | Page 30

Branching Out
The region’s epicurean culture often makes
an impact on travelers. They may take the
culinary influences they discovered and
incorporate them when they return home, or
become so captivated that they extend their
stay, bringing their own style to the local
epicurean scene.
Lee, a Korean-American Brooklyn native
who competed on Bravo’s “Top Chef,” falls
into the latter category. He knew very little
about Southern cuisine before visiting the
Kentucky Derby in 2003. After falling in

love with the area and moving to Louisville
shortly after, he immersed himself in
the regional flavors, joined the Southern
Foodways Alliance (an organization that
studies and documents the local food
culture) and launched successful Southerninfluenced restaurants in Kentucky and the
Washington, D.C., area.
“I started to see a shift in attitudes toward
Southern food about a decade ago,” he says.
“Since then, an entire generation of forwardthinking chefs in every corner of the South
have redefined Southern food in ways that

30 SEA ISL AND LIFE | SPRING/SUMMER 2016

TOP LEFT, TOP RIGHT AND BOTTOM RIGHT PHOTOS BY MELISSA HOM ; BOTTOM LEFT PHOTO BY QUENTIN BACON

Clockwise from top left: Jean-Paul Bourgeois, fried chicken and biscuits, the dining space and collard
greens at Blue Smoke in New York City

force us to look at it as an amalgamation of
regional cuisines versus one homogenous
culture. The history of Southern food is the
history of America.”
This change in perception coincided
with the rise of the locavore and farm-totable movements. Both highlight dishes
that utilize fresh, seasonal, sustainably
produced and locally sou