Chef Sean Brock brings history to Heritage

Chef Sean Brock’s recently released cookbook, Heritage, is sure to be on many “best of” lists for 2014. What began as a book about cooking in the Lowcountry (Brock’s two restaurants are located in Charleston, South Carolina) transformed into a self-described documentary with “personal anecdotes and reflections on the significance of seed-saving, home-gardening and keeping culinary traditions alive.”

The James-Beard Award winning chef found this change to a full-disclosure approach to be “terrifying.” Making his personal history public was scary enough, but he also strived to make sure no recipes were shortchanged. He notes that “if the food that you’re serving while you’re telling a story isn’t delicious, nobody cares about the story.”

Brock, who grew up in Appalachia, takes a conservationist approach to food. He recalls eating at his grandmother’s house, where the food was vibrant and flavorful, and contrasts those memories to the first time he ate Hoppin’ John at a restaurant. Brock found it tasteless compared to his family’s food, and he attributes the difference to the quality of the heirloom vegetables his family raised. “I’d go back to my grandmother’s house, have dinner and everything would be bursting with flavour because my family saved seeds, and they’re very in love with specific varieties of plants that they’ve been growing and eating forever,” he says.

Brock would like to open another restaurantm this one based on the cuisine of the Appalachians, but he feels that he wouldn’t be able to get enough of the quality food that he wants to use. Read more about Brock’s story and why he thinks winter is the best time to cook at the National Post.